Solitaire uses a lot of familiar card-game terms, but words like tableau, foundation, stock, waste, cascade and run can mean different things depending on the game. This glossary explains the most useful Solitaire terms in plain English.
Solitaire Terms Explained
Solitaire has its own vocabulary. Some of it clicks the first time you see the board; other words stay fuzzy because the same label shows up in several games and does not always behave the same way.
The tableau is the main playing area. The stock holds cards waiting to come in. The waste receives what you draw from that stock. Foundations are usually where completed cards build toward a win. Step into FreeCell, Spider, Tri Peaks, or Pyramid and you will also hear cascades, free cells, runs, exposed cards, and redeals.
None of that jargon is hard once you see where each piece sits on a real layout. If you are starting with classic Klondike, the How to Play Solitaire guide walks through most of the basics in context.
Tableau
The tableau is where most of the hand actually happens. In Klondike it is seven columns of face-up and face-down cards that you build downward in alternating colours. FreeCell also uses tableau columns as the main play area, though every card starts face up. Spider spreads a larger tableau because it runs on two decks.
Rules shift from game to game, but the job stays the same: move cards, uncover what is buried, tidy sequences, and clear space. If someone says a card is "in the tableau," they just mean it sits in that main layout rather than the stock, waste, foundation, or another special pile.
Foundation
A foundation is a pile where cards usually build toward finishing the game. Klondike has four of them. Each starts with an Ace and climbs in suit: Ace, 2, 3, 4, up through King. FreeCell uses the same general system; once all four suits run Ace to King, you have won.
Cards that leave for a foundation are mostly done with the main puzzle, but that does not mean every legal foundation move is a good one. Sometimes a card still helps more on the tableau. That gap between legal and useful is a big part of Klondike Strategy Basics.
Not every Solitaire game uses foundations at all. Spider, Tri Peaks, and Pyramid clear cards by other means.
Stock
The stock is the pile of undealt or unused cards waiting to enter play. In Klondike it sits beside the tableau and feeds new cards when the board has nothing useful left. Depending on the mode, you draw one card at a time or three.
In Tri Peaks, the stock hands you a fresh waste card when your current run stalls. In Pyramid, stock cards can pair with exposed pyramid cards. Spider treats the stock differently again: instead of flipping into a waste pile, a stock deal drops a new card onto every tableau column.
Same idea in each case (cards waiting outside the active layout), different delivery rules.
Waste
The waste is where drawn stock cards land. Only the top waste card is playable, so each new draw changes what you can use.
In Klondike, that top card can go to the tableau or a foundation if the move is legal. In Tri Peaks, the waste card is the centre of the puzzle: exposed tableau cards must sit one rank higher or lower than it. In Pyramid, the current waste card can pair with an exposed pyramid card when the two values add to 13.
People sometimes call it a discard pile, but "waste" is the usual Solitaire word. It is not a dead zone. Its top card is often an active part of the puzzle, which is why stock timing matters.
Draw 1
Draw 1 is a common Klondike stock rule: each draw turns one card onto the waste. Access is straightforward because every stock card becomes available on its own turn. That usually makes Draw 1 easier to manage than Draw 3, even if you can still burn a good position with impatient draws.
You can play Klondike Solitaire in the available modes and feel how stock rules change the rhythm.
Draw 3
Draw 3 turns three stock cards at once. Usually only the top card of that group is immediately playable, so stock order matters a lot more. A useful card can sit underneath another and stay locked until you clear what is above it or cycle the stock again.
Klondike's other rules stay mostly the same; how you manage the stock does not. That is why Draw 1 vs Draw 3 Solitaire often feels like two versions of the game rather than a tiny rule tweak.
Redeal
A redeal happens when you reach the end of the stock and are allowed to use those cards again. Some games allow unlimited redeals, some allow a fixed number, and some allow none. In Solitaire Arcade's Medium Pyramid mode, for example, you can traverse the stock three times.
Redeals change difficulty because they give you another shot at a card that showed up at the wrong moment on an earlier pass. When a rule says "three passes through the stock," that is how many times the stock can be redealt or traversed.
Tableau Column
A tableau column is one vertical group of cards inside the tableau. Klondike has seven, FreeCell eight, Spider ten. Position inside a column decides how hard a card is to reach: an Ace near the bottom of a short pile may free quickly, while the same Ace under a tall stack is a longer dig.
Empty columns matter too. In FreeCell and Spider especially, an empty column is not just blank space. It is room to reorganise the board.
Cascade
Cascade is the FreeCell name for one of the eight tableau columns. Moving a card from one cascade to another just means shifting it between those columns. The word helps keep the columns distinct from the four free cells and four foundations.
In practice: cascades hold the main stacks, free cells are temporary storage, and foundations are where cards eventually go. The How to Play FreeCell guide shows how those three areas work together.
Free Cell
A free cell is one of the four single-card holding spots in FreeCell. Parking a card there can uncover something useful or help you rearrange a sequence, but filling the cells too early also shrinks how many cards you can move as a group.
A free cell is not just a junk drawer for awkward cards. It is a scarce resource, which is why FreeCell Free Cells vs Empty Columns treats space management as one of the game's core ideas.
Empty Column
An empty column is a tableau column with nothing in it, and in many Solitaire games it is extremely valuable. Klondike only lets Kings (or sequences that start with a King) move into empty columns. FreeCell can use an empty cascade as temporary working space. Spider uses empty columns to reshuffle sequences around the board.
An empty column often gives more freedom than a single empty cell because it can hold more than one card or sequence, depending on the rules. Opening that space is often a goal, not just a side effect of clearing cards.
Exposed Card
An exposed card is one you can currently play. The exact test depends on the layout. In Klondike it is usually the face-up card at the foot of a tableau column. In Tri Peaks and Pyramid, a card becomes exposed once the cards overlapping it are gone.
Visible and exposed are not the same thing. You can see a pyramid card and still be unable to play it if something still covers part of it. That split matters a lot in Pyramid Solitaire, where much of the strategy is choosing which removals free the next layer.
Face-Up Card
A face-up card is one whose rank and suit you can see. That does not always mean you can move it. Other cards may still sit on top. Spider is full of long face-up stretches where only the lower part of a sequence can travel.
Face-up describes information. It does not guarantee availability.
Face-Down Card
A face-down card is hidden. Klondike and Spider both bury face-down cards in the tableau at the start, and flipping them is usually real progress: new information and new moves. FreeCell is different because every card begins face up, which is one reason FreeCell vs Solitaire feels like a contrast between open planning and hidden discovery.
Run
A run is a sequence that follows the game's rank pattern, and the word shifts a little between variants. In Spider, a descending line such as 9-8-7-6 is a run; a complete same-suit King-to-Ace run can leave the tableau. In Tri Peaks, "run" often means a chain of consecutive removals, for example playing 7-8-9-8-7-6 without drawing from the stock. Those cards are not stacked together; they form a streak of legal plays.
So the game matters. Spider runs are built. Tri Peaks runs are played.
Sequence
A sequence is a group of cards arranged in a set order. In Klondike, a descending alternating-colour group such as black 9, red 8, black 7 is a sequence. Spider forms descending sequences too, though same-suit ones matter more because they move cleanly and are needed to finish the game.
"Sequence" and "run" get used almost interchangeably. The useful split is usually contextual: sequence describes cards being in order; run often treats that ordered group as something you are building, moving, or playing. How to Build Same-Suit Runs in Spider Solitaire shows why that difference matters at the table.
Same-Suit Run
A same-suit run is a descending sequence where every card shares a suit, for example 9♠, 8♠, 7♠, 6♠. That matters most in Spider. You can often park mixed-suit descending cards temporarily, depending on the mode, but only same-suit sequences give you the clean organisation needed for a full King-to-Ace clear.
In harder Spider games, much of the work is turning mixed stacks into same-suit runs. A legal sequence helps. A clean same-suit sequence usually helps a lot more.
Complete Run
In Spider, a complete run is a same-suit sequence from King all the way to Ace: King, Queen, Jack, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, Ace. Form that run and it leaves the tableau. You win when all eight complete runs are cleared.
That system stands in for traditional foundations. Cards are not built upward into four suit piles the way they are in Klondike; they are organised into full descending suit sequences and removed.
Build, Build Up and Build Down
To build means to place cards into an ordered sequence under the game's rules.
Build down means arranging cards from higher rank to lower, for example 10, 9, 8, 7. Klondike builds down in alternating colours on the tableau. Spider builds down by rank, while suit decides how useful or movable the resulting sequence is.
Build up means arranging cards from lower rank to higher. Foundations in Klondike and FreeCell build up by suit from Ace to King. A 4 of Hearts must go onto the 3 of Hearts, not just any 3.
FreeCell uses similar building rules in its cascades and foundations. When a guide says "build on the 9," it means place an allowed 8 onto that 9. The rules decide which 8 is legal.
Alternating Colours
Alternating colours means switching between red and black as you build. In Klondike, a black 8 can sit on a red 9, then a red 7 on that black 8. Suit does not need to rotate in a fixed pattern; only colour matters. Hearts and Diamonds are red; Clubs and Spades are black. That colour flip is one of the defining mechanics of Klondike-style tableau building.
By Suit
By suit means cards must share the same suit. Building a Hearts foundation means every card in that pile is a Heart. Spider uses suit differently: mixed-suit descending sequences may be legal for a while, but complete runs need to stay within one suit.
Whenever a rule says "by suit," colour alone is not enough. The suit symbol matters.
Rank
A card's rank is its value or position: Ace, 2, 3, 4, and so on through Jack, Queen, and King. Rank is separate from suit. The 8 of Hearts and 8 of Spades share a rank but not a suit.
That split matters most in Tri Peaks and Pyramid, where suits do not control legal matches. Those games mostly care about rank.
Suit
A card's suit is Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, or Spades. Suit is crucial in some Solitaire games and almost irrelevant in others. Klondike and FreeCell foundations must build by suit. Spider gets harder as more suits enter play. Tri Peaks ignores suits when you remove cards. Pyramid ignores suits when you make pairs that add to 13.
Knowing whether a game cares about rank, colour, or suit saves a lot of confusion when you hop between variants.
Pair
In Pyramid Solitaire, a pair means two available cards whose values add to 13: Ace with Queen, 2 with Jack, 3 with 10, 4 with 9, 5 with 8, and 6 with 7. Kings come off alone because a King already counts as 13.
The full pairing chart is in Pyramid Solitaire Pairs: What Cards Add Up to 13?. The terminology point is simple: a Pyramid "pair" is about value only. Suits do not need to match.
Stock Traversal
A stock traversal is one complete trip through the stock. If a game allows three traversals, you can work through that pile three times. The idea is especially useful in Pyramid, where the same stock order gets more valuable once you have seen it. A card that did nothing on the first pass may be exactly what you need on the second.
The Pyramid Solitaire strategy guide looks more closely at using those repeat passes on purpose.
Deal
Deal can mean the act of dealing cards, or the particular layout that deal created. "This deal is difficult" points at the specific arrangement you were given. "Deal from the stock" means putting new cards into play. Context usually settles which meaning applies. A single deal can be easy, hard, or even impossible depending on the game and its rules.
Deal From the Stock
To deal from the stock means bringing new stock cards into the active game. In Spider the phrase is very specific: a stock deal places one new card on each tableau column. That can reshape the board in a hurry. You may get useful cards, or you may bury sequences you had carefully organised.
That is why When to Deal From the Stock in Spider Solitaire treats dealing as a decision, not something you do automatically whenever play slows down.
Legal Move
A legal move is any move the rules allow. That does not make it a good move. Shipping a card may be legal and still block a better sequence. Sending a card to the foundation may be legal and still remove something you needed on the tableau. A Pyramid pair may be legal and expose nothing. A Spider stock deal may be legal and make the board harder.
Solitaire strategy starts when you stop asking only "Can I make this move?" and start asking "What does this move improve?"
Available Move
An available move is a legal move you can make right now. A move can exist in theory and still be unavailable because a card is covered, buried in the stock, or blocked by another sequence. Pyramid makes the distinction obvious: you may see a 6 and a 7 in the layout, but if one is still covered, the pair is not available yet. The cards match. The move does not exist until both are free.
Blocked Card
A blocked card is one you cannot currently reach or use because other cards are in the way. Klondike cards hide under tableau stacks. Spider cards get buried beneath sequences. Pyramid cards are blocked by overlapping cards. FreeCell cards can be effectively blocked when moving what sits above them would need more temporary space than you have.
A lot of Solitaire strategy is deciding which blocked cards are worth digging for first.
Supermove
A supermove is FreeCell language for moving a sequence as if it were one action, provided you have enough free cells and empty columns to make that shift legal. Behind the scenes, the sequence could be moved one card at a time using the available space; the interface just performs that legal series for you.
How many cards you can move depends on how much working space you have left. Empty free cells and empty cascades unlock larger moves.
Autoplay
Autoplay is a game feature that automatically sends obvious cards to their destination, usually foundations. It is not a Solitaire rule so much as an interface convenience. It can speed things up because you do not have to tap every safe Ace, 2, or 3 by hand, but the exact behaviour depends on the version you are playing.
When strategy matters, it still helps to notice what the automated move is doing.
Patience
Patience is another name for Solitaire, especially common outside North America. Historically, "patience games" covers the broad family of single-player card games that includes Klondike, Spider, FreeCell, Pyramid, and many others. If you see "patience" in an older card-game book, it usually means that same family of games people now call Solitaire.
Solitaire
Solitaire is both the everyday name for Klondike and the broader label for a family of mostly single-player card games. Someone saying "I play Solitaire" often means Klondike. Someone talking about "types of Solitaire" may also mean FreeCell, Spider, Pyramid, Tri Peaks, Golf, Yukon, Forty Thieves, and more. Context settles which meaning is in play.
For a wider map of the family, Types of Solitaire Games compares several of the major styles.
Once You Know the Terms, the Games Get Easier
Solitaire vocabulary looks denser than it is. Tableau is the main playing area. Stock holds cards waiting to enter. Waste receives what comes off that stock. Foundations are where cards usually build toward a finish. Free cells give temporary space. Runs and sequences are ordered groups. Exposed cards are playable; blocked cards are not.
Once those ideas feel familiar, hopping between Solitaire games gets easier. You are not learning a new language each time so much as recognising the same tools with different jobs.
To see the terms on a live board, try Klondike Solitaire, FreeCell, Spider Solitaire, Tri Peaks, or Pyramid Solitaire. Same familiar deck; slightly different work for each word.
