Bingo Lingo: 50 Terms Every Player Should Know
Walk into a proper bingo hall and you'll hear a language unto itself. "Two fat ladies!" "Legs eleven!" "Clickety-click!" If you're new to bingo — or just want to sound like a veteran — here are 50 terms, calls, and phrases that define the culture.
Essential Game Terms
- Eyes down — Caller's signal that the game is starting; stop talking and focus on your card
- Dabber / Dauber — The ink marker used to mark numbers on a physical card
- Full house — All numbers on a card marked (UK term); called "blackout" or "coverall" in the US
- Line — Completing one horizontal row on a 90-ball card; often an intermediate prize
- Two lines — Completing two rows; another intermediate prize tier in 90-ball bingo
- Caller — The person drawing and announcing numbers
- Board — The electronic display showing called numbers
- Session — A scheduled block of bingo games
- Flyer — A single-game ticket sold separately from the main session
- Strip — A set of six 90-ball tickets containing all 90 numbers between them
Classic British Bingo Calls (Numbers 1–30)
British bingo calls are a rhyming slang tradition. Here are the most beloved:
- 1 — Kelly's eye (or "at the beginning, number one")
- 2 — One little duck
- 3 — Cup of tea
- 7 — Lucky seven
- 8 — One fat lady (the 8 resembles a figure)
- 9 — Doctor's orders (No. 9 pill was a laxative)
- 11 — Legs eleven
- 13 — Unlucky for some
- 16 — Sweet sixteen
- 21 — Key of the door (coming of age)
- 22 — Two little ducks
- 25 — Duck and dive
- 26 — Pick and mix
Classic British Bingo Calls (Numbers 31–90)
- 33 — Dirty knees (or "all the threes")
- 39 — Steps (39 Steps film)
- 40 — Life begins
- 42 — Winnie the Pooh
- 44 — Droopy drawers
- 45 — Halfway there
- 51 — Tweak of the thumb
- 55 — Snakes alive
- 57 — Heinz varieties
- 60 — Five dozen
- 66 — Clickety click
- 69 — Either way up
- 76 — Trombones (76 Trombones)
- 77 — Sunset strip (77 Sunset Strip)
- 88 — Two fat ladies
- 90 — Top of the shop
Online and Modern Bingo Slang
- 1TG / 2TG — "One to go" / "Two to go" — used in chat to signal near-win status
- GG — Good game
- GL — Good luck
- WDW — Well done winner
- Gratz — Congratulations
- Lurker — A player who watches but rarely chats
- Auto-daub — Software feature that automatically marks your numbers
- Chat host / CH — The person moderating the chat room in online bingo
Winning and Scoring Terms
- Bingo! — The winning shout
- Coverall / Blackout — American term for marking every square
- Pattern win — Winning by completing a specific shape rather than a line
- Jackpot — A top-tier prize, often requiring a win within a certain number of calls
- Hard way bingo — Winning without using the free space
- Postage stamp — Winning pattern: four corners of one quadrant
- Six-pack — A 2x3 block of marked numbers
Now that you speak the language, you're ready to find a card and play — or better yet, create your own custom bingo game with any topic you choose.