Reference
Court Piece glossary
Rung, hukam, hakam, sir, kot, bavney. Thirty-odd words, four languages, one card table — all of it defined, with the alternative spellings you will see written down.
Updated October 2026
Court Piece borrows its vocabulary from Urdu, Punjabi, Persian and English all at once, and the same word changes meaning depending on who is saying it. This is every term you are likely to hear at a table — or see on a screen in RUNG — with the spellings people actually use.
At the table
- Rungalso rang, rung
- Two meanings, and context tells you which. The trump suit for the current hand — and the name of the game itself in Pakistan and north India. “What’s the rung?” means “what’s trump?”
- Hukamalso hukm, hukum
- The trump suit, from the Urdu and Arabic word for order or command. Interchangeable with rung. The Persian form, hokm, gives the Iranian cousin of this game its name.
- Hakamalso hakim, haakam
- The player who calls the trump: the one sitting to the dealer’s right, who names a suit after seeing only five cards. Also the one who leads the first trick.
- Siralso sarr, ser
- A trick — one round of four cards, one from each player. Thirteen sirs make a hand.
- Single sir
- The standard game: the winning side collects each trick as soon as it is complete. RUNG’s default and the ruleset used for every ranked match.
- Double siralso do sari, do sar
- The variant where won tricks stay in the middle until one player wins two tricks in a row and sweeps the pile. Never collectable off a pile’s first two tricks. Full rule.
- Band hukamalso closed trump, hidden trump
- Trump called in secret: only the hakam knows the suit until the first card of it reaches the table. Everything else about the hand is unchanged. Full rule.
- Lead
- The first card played into a trick. It sets the suit everybody else must follow if they can. Whoever wins a trick leads the next one.
- Follow suit
- The one hard rule in Court Piece: if a suit is led and you hold a card in it, you must play that suit. Only a player with none of it may play something else.
- Voidalso showing out
- Holding no cards in a suit. The first time a player cannot follow, everyone at the table learns they are void — and it stays true for the rest of the hand. Remembering it is most of the skill.
- Partner
- The player sitting opposite you. Fixed for the match, and you are not allowed to tell them anything except through the cards you choose to play.
- Dealer
- Deals five cards, then four and four. If the calling team wins the hand, the deal and the trump call stay where they are; only when the calling team loses does the deal move on.
The cards
- Pattaalso patte
- A playing card, in Urdu and Punjabi. Patte khelna — to play cards.
- Ikkaalso akka
- The Ace. Highest card in every suit, trump or not.
- Badshah
- The King.
- Begum
- The Queen.
- Ghulamalso gulaam
- The Jack.
- Dehlaalso dahla
- The Ten. The lowest of the five big cards, and often the one that decides a trick after the courts are gone.
- Court cardalso face card
- Jack, Queen, King or Ace. Tables that allow a redeal usually trigger it when the hakam’s first five cards contain none.
Scoring
- Courtalso coat
- A hand won — seven of the thirteen tricks. Matches are counted in courts; the word is also where “Court Piece” comes from.
- Kotalso kote, coat, kaut
- All thirteen tricks. The big score: worth double a normal hand, and in RUNG enough to win the match on its own. A hand that is already decided keeps going while the losing side is on zero, because a kot is still possible.
- Bavneyalso 52-court
- A regional name for the sweep — taking all thirteen tricks in one hand, counted as fifty-two cards won. Same event as a kot, bigger word for it.
- Goon courtalso gun court
- At some tables, a kot scored against the team that called the trump. Being swept on your own hukam is the worst outcome in the game, and plenty of families score it extra.
- Redeal
- Throwing the hand in before it starts, when the hakam’s five cards hold no court card. A table rule, not a universal one — agree on it before the first deal.
In RUNG
- Quick Play
- Matchmaking against real players: it weighs rating, region and connection, and widens its search the longer you wait. Fills any seat nobody takes with a bot.
- Private room
- A table you create, with the house rules you pick and a short room code. Share the code or the invite link and your group drops straight in. How it works.
- Practice
- Offline play against bots with adjustable skill. Never affects your rating. More on bots.
- Ratingalso elo
- A number that moves after every ranked match, by more when you beat a stronger side and less when you beat a weaker one. It decides your tier, Bronze through Master. Ranks explained.
- Season
- A monthly competitive window. Leaderboards are scored within it, so a bad start is never permanent.
- Streak
- Consecutive ranked wins. Tracked on your profile, and much harder to hold than it looks.
Hear them used properly
Sit at a table with three real players and the vocabulary sticks faster than any list can teach it.