The table
- Tableau
- The main playing area: the seven columns dealt at the start of Klondike, where all the mid-game building happens. Columns run one to seven cards deep, and only each column’s top card starts face up.
- Foundation
- One of the four piles above the tableau, one per suit, built upward from ace to king. Getting all 52 cards onto the foundations is what winning means.
- Stock
- The face-down packet left over after the deal — 24 cards in Klondike — that you turn through during play.
- Waste
- The face-up pile next to the stock where turned cards land. Only its top card is in play; the rest wait underneath in order.
- Column
- A single tableau stack. “Pile” is the looser word for any stack on the table, including the stock, waste, and foundations.
- Free cell
- In FreeCell, one of four open slots that hold any single card temporarily — the safety valves that give the game its name.
Dealing and moving
- Deal
- Both the act of laying out a fresh game and the resulting arrangement itself. Two identical deals play out identically — the difference is the choices you make.
- Draw 1
- The stock mode that turns one card per flip, so every stock card becomes reachable on each pass. The version classic desktop solitaire made standard.
- Draw 3 (Turn 3)
- The stock mode that turns three cards at once with only the top one playable. Same deals, meaningfully lower win rate.
- Flip
- Turning a face-down tableau card face up once nothing covers it. Every flip is new information, which is why moves that cause flips are usually the strongest available.
- Build
- Placing cards in legal order: downward in alternating colors on the tableau, upward by suit on the foundations.
- Run
- A built stretch of tableau cards — black 9, red 8, black 7 — that moves as a single unit in Klondike.
- Alternating colors
- The tableau’s placement rule: a card goes only on a card one rank higher and of the opposite color. A black 6 fits on a red 7; a red 6 does not.
- Empty column
- A tableau column with nothing left in it. Klondike allows only a King — alone or leading its run — to move in.
- Recycle (pass)
- Turning the exhausted waste back into a fresh stock. Each trip through the stock is one pass; casual play allows unlimited passes, while scored and Vegas variants penalize or cap them.
- Safe move
- A move that can never cost you later. Aces and twos to the foundations are the textbook examples; most other “obvious” moves deserve a second look.
- Auto-complete
- The game finishing a won position for you. StillDeck’s version is deliberately conservative — it takes over only once every tableau card is face up and the remaining cards can all be played to the foundations, even if some are still in the stock.
Outcomes and scoring
- Winnable (solvable)
- A deal that perfect play could finish. The large majority of Klondike deals are winnable in principle; real win rates sit far lower because face-down cards force guesses.
- Deadlock
- A position with no move that makes progress — nothing to build, nothing useful left in the stock. StillDeck detects deadlocks and says so, instead of letting you cycle the stock forever.
- Standard scoring
- The familiar point system: points for foundation plays and flips, small deductions for take-backs and extra passes through the stock.
- Vegas scoring
- The casino-style variant: the deck costs money up front and each card played to a foundation earns a fixed amount back, with strict limits on passes through the stock.
- Undo
- Taking back your latest Klondike move. You can rewind every recorded move in the current game.
The family
- Klondike
- The seven-column game most of the world simply calls solitaire, named after the 1890s Yukon gold-rush region where it reputedly spread.
- Patience
- The British and European family name for single-player card games. Same games, different label.
- Solitaire
- In American usage, both the whole family of one-player card games and the everyday name for Klondike itself.
- FreeCell
- The open-information relative: every card starts face up and nearly every deal is winnable, so it plays as pure planning rather than discovery.