Solitaire has its own vocabulary, and the terms are not always obvious at first glance. This glossary covers the words you'll see across Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, and other common variants — explained plainly, without assuming prior knowledge.
Core Terms
Ace-pile
Another name for a foundation pile, used because foundations start with an ace. Common in older rulebooks and some European traditions. See also: Foundation.
Autocomplete
A feature that automatically moves the remaining cards to the foundations once every move is forced and correct. It saves you from clicking through obvious endgame moves. Not all platforms implement it, and some require manual triggering.
Available card
A card that can legally be moved right now. In most variants, it must be face-up and uncovered; in FreeCell, any face-up tableau card is available. The set of available cards defines your legal moves.
Blocker
Any card that sits on top of a card you need, preventing access. Blockers can be face-down or face-up. Identifying and clearing blockers is a central challenge in most solitaire variants. A circular blocker is a loop where A blocks B, B blocks C, and C blocks A.
Build
To place a card on another according to the game's stacking rules. In Klondike and FreeCell, you build in alternating colors and descending rank; in Spider, you build in descending rank, with same-suit runs being more valuable. "Building down" means placing lower-ranked cards on higher-ranked ones; "building up" is the reverse, as on foundations.
Cell
A temporary holding space for a single card, used in FreeCell and some other variants. FreeCell has four cells, each holding exactly one card. Cells are not foundations, and filling all four is usually a bad sign.
Column / Pile / Stack
These three words are often used interchangeably to mean a vertical group of cards in the tableau. Technically, "column" is the position, "pile" is the cards there, and "stack" is informal; in modern usage they usually mean the same thing.
Deal
Two meanings: the initial layout at the start of a game, and the act of flipping cards from stock to waste during play.
Empty column
A tableau column with no cards in it. Empty columns are valuable because they can hold cards or sequences temporarily. In Klondike, only a king (and its sequence) can go there; in FreeCell and Spider, any card can.
Face-down / Face-up
Cards are either face-down or face-up. In Klondike, many tableau cards start face-down and flip when uncovered; in FreeCell, all cards start face-up. A card must be face-up to move.
Foundation
The four piles (one per suit) where cards are built from ace to king. Winning usually means moving all 52 cards there. Foundations are built up by suit, and cards are usually locked once placed.
Hint
A suggestion from the game engine about a legal move you might not have noticed. Hints don't guarantee the best move; they just show something legal. Use them when you're stuck.
Move
Any legal action that changes the game state: moving to foundation, flipping stock to waste, or shifting a tableau sequence. In scored play, lower move counts are better.
Patience
The British and European term for solitaire. It refers to the genre, not a specific variant.
Rank
The number or face value of a card: ace (1), 2 through 10, jack (11), queen (12), king (13). Rank determines where a card can be placed and when it can go to the foundation.
Redeal
Cycling through the stock pile again after it's been exhausted. Some rulesets limit redeals; others allow unlimited redeals. Cards4 uses unlimited redeals for Klondike.
Reserve
A designated area for holding cards that aren't in the tableau or foundations, used in some variants. FreeCell's cells are a type of reserve; in other variants, a reserve may be a face-up row that can be played from but not built on.
Sequence
A group of cards arranged in order according to the game's stacking rules. In Klondike, that's alternating colors in descending rank; in Spider, it's same-suit descending rank. Moving a sequence as a unit is allowed in most variants, subject to FreeCell's supermove rule.
Stock
The face-down pile of cards not dealt to the tableau at the start of the game. In Klondike you flip cards from stock to waste during play; in FreeCell, there is no stock.
Suit
One of the four card categories: spades (♠), hearts (♥), diamonds (♦), clubs (♣). Suit matters for foundation building and, in some variants, for tableau rules.
Supermove
In FreeCell, the rule that limits how many cards you can move as a group based on empty cells and empty columns. The rough formula is (empty cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns); if a sequence exceeds that limit, the move is illegal.
Tableau
The main playing area — the columns of cards spread across the center of the board. The tableau is where most of the action happens.
Talon
An older term for the waste pile — the face-up pile where cards from stock land after being flipped. In modern usage, "waste" is more common than "talon."
Undo
A feature that reverses your last move. Undo is standard in digital solitaire; some players treat unlimited undo as cheating, while others use it for exploration. Cards4 supports it.
Variant
A specific version of a card game with its own rules. Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, Yukon, and Pyramid are all variants; Klondike Turn 1 and Turn 3 are sub-variants.
Waste
The face-up pile next to the stock where flipped cards land. Only the top card is playable; when you redeal, the waste becomes the new stock.
Win condition
The state that ends the game in a win. In most solitaire variants, that means all 52 cards on the foundations.
Variant-Specific Terms
Some terms only appear in specific variants and can be confusing if you encounter them without context.
In FreeCell, the term home cell is sometimes used instead of "foundation." The free cells are temporary storage; the home cells are the foundations.
In Spider, a complete sequence is a run of 13 same-suit cards from king down to ace. Completing one removes it from the tableau entirely.
In Klondike, turning the corner means you've cycled through the stock and are running out of useful moves.
In Pyramid, a dead card can never be removed because both pairing cards are already buried or gone.
Etymology Notes
Several solitaire terms have French roots. "Patience" and "solitaire" both entered card-game vocabulary through French usage, and words like "tableau" and "talon" come directly from French card literature. "Klondike" refers to the Yukon gold-rush region.
FAQ
Q: What's the difference between the stock and the waste pile?
The stock is the face-down pile of unplayed cards. The waste (or talon) is the face-up pile where cards land after being flipped from the stock. Only the top card of the waste is available to play. When the stock runs out, you can redeal by flipping the waste pile back over to form a new stock. Think of the stock as the "incoming" pile and the waste as the "seen but not yet played" pile.
Q: What does "building in alternating colors" mean?
It means each card you place on a tableau column must be a different color from the card beneath it. In Klondike and FreeCell, red cards (hearts ♥ and diamonds ♦) alternate with black cards (spades ♠ and clubs ♣). So a red 7 can go on a black 8, and a black 6 can go on that red 7. You can't place a red 7 on a red 8 or a black 7 on a black 8. The suit within a color doesn't matter for tableau building — only the color does.
Q: What's a supermove and why does it matter in FreeCell?
FreeCell technically only allows moving one card at a time. The supermove rule is a shortcut that lets you move a sequence of cards as a group, but only if you have enough free cells and empty columns to have moved them one at a time. If you have 2 free cells and 1 empty column, you can move up to (2+1) × 2^1 = 6 cards as a group. Trying to move more than the supermove limit allows is illegal. This rule is why managing your free cells carefully matters so much in FreeCell — filling them all up reduces your ability to move sequences.
Q: Is "patience" the same as "solitaire"?
Yes. "Patience" is the British and European term for the same category of solo card games that Americans call "solitaire." Both words refer to the genre, not a specific game. Klondike, FreeCell, Spider, and hundreds of other variants are all "patience games" or "solitaire games" depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on.