A quick-reference glossary for every Pinochle term you’ll run into, whether you’re reading the rules or sitting at the table trying to keep up.
Around — Four cards of the same rank, one from each suit (e.g., four Kings), melded together. See Meld Scoring.
Bid — The number a player commits their partnership to reaching in combined meld + trick points, won through the bidding phase. See Bidding Rules.
Bidder — The player who wins the bidding and names trump.
Dix (pronounced “deece”) — The 9 of trump, worth 10 meld points if melded before play begins.
Double Deck Pinochle — A variant played with two 48-card decks combined (96 cards total), usually for larger groups. See Double-Deck Pinochle.
Double Pinochle — Both copies of the Pinochle combination (both Queens of Spades and both Jacks of Diamonds), worth 30 meld points.
Marriage — A King and Queen of the same suit, melded together. Worth 2 points, or 4 if it’s the trump suit.
Meld — (1) As a noun, a scoring combination of cards laid on the table. (2) As a verb, the act of laying those cards down. See Meld Scoring.
Partnership Pinochle — The standard 4-player version of the game, played in two fixed 2-player teams. See Four-Handed Partnership Pinochle.
Pinochle — The Queen of Spades + Jack of Diamonds combination the game is named after. Worth 4 meld points.
Run (also called a sequence) — Ace, 10, King, Queen, Jack, all of the trump suit. Worth 15 meld points.
Set — What happens when the bidding side fails to reach their bid in combined meld + trick points. Instead of scoring their total, they subtract their bid from their running score. See Scoring Explained.
Trick — One round of play where each player contributes one card; the highest-ranking card (accounting for trump) wins and collects all four cards. See Trick-Taking Rules.
Trump — The suit named by the bidder that outranks all other suits for the rest of the hand.
Widow / Kitty — Extra cards dealt to the table rather than to a player, used in some variants like Auction Pinochle but not in standard partnership Pinochle.