This glossary is meant to be useful at the table, not decorative. If you hear a word during a game and are not sure what it means, start here. The goal is quick definitions with enough context to point you toward the right rules or strategy page.
Because spades has many local variations, some terms shift slightly from one group to another. When a word can change by house rule, this guide notes that and links you to the page that explains it in more detail.
Bidding terms
Bid — The number of tricks a player or team expects to take. See how to bid your spades hand.
Nil — A bid to take zero tricks. See when to bid nil.
Blind nil — A nil bid made before looking at the hand, when that rule is allowed.
Partnership bid — The combined target created by both partners’ bids. See partnership bidding.
Boston — A specialty bid or variant term that usually refers to an aggressive, all-tricks style contract or local-rule challenge. See bidding Boston in spades.
Blind six / blind seven — House-rule special bids made without seeing the hand, often tied to local variants. See blind six and Dennis Barmore rules.
Scoring terms
Bag / sandbag — An overtrick taken beyond the team’s bid. In many games, collecting too many bags triggers a penalty. See spades scoring explained.
Set — Failing to make the bid. A set usually causes a negative score equal to the contract value.
Contract — The tricks your team committed to taking that hand.
Books — Tricks won during the hand. Some players also say “counting books” to mean tracking how many tricks have been taken so far. See counting books during play.
Run a yard — Table slang used in some groups for taking many tricks in a dominant stretch or sweeping control through the hand. See run a yard in spades.
Play and trick-taking terms
Trump — The suit that beats all other suits when it is played legally. In standard spades, spades are always trump.
Break spades — Make it legal to lead spades by playing them as trump, under the table’s rule set. See how spades are broken.
Follow suit — Play the suit that was led if you have one.
Renege — Fail to follow suit when you could have. See what is reneging in spades.
Misdeal — A hand that must be redealt because of an agreed dealing problem. See misdeal in spades.
Third seat — The third player to act on a trick. See playing third seat.
Variant and local-rule terms
House rules — The table’s own chosen rules on nil, bags, misdeals, jokers, scoring targets, and more. See common spades house rules.
New York City rules — A local-style ruleset associated with specific table traditions, often around jokers and rankings. See New York City spades rules.
Dennis Barmore spades — A named variant that uses its own ranking and special-bid structure. See Dennis Barmore rules.
No trumps / no spades in hand — A common way players describe a hand where they hold no spades. See bidding with no spades in your hand.
If you want the more colorful table phrases rather than the rules vocabulary, continue to the spades glossary of slang. If you want the clean standard rule set, go next to rules of spades.