Shut the Box Glossary — What Every Term Means

The most common Shut the Box terms and what they mean at the table, ordered by how often you will hear them.

The box: The wooden tray holding the nine numbered tiles. Each player's turn starts with every tile standing.
Tile: One of the nine numbered plates (1–9). Tiles are unique: you cannot shut the 3 twice to make a 6.
Open (up): A tile still standing. Only open tiles may be shut; the sum of open tiles at the end of a turn is your penalty.
Shut (down): Flipping a tile down after rolling. You shut a group of open tiles whose numbers add up to the dice total.
The roll: Throwing two six-sided dice; their pips are added. Once 7, 8 and 9 are shut, a single die may be rolled instead (optional).
One-die option: The choice to roll one die instead of two, available only after the 7, 8 and 9 tiles are all shut.
Combination: Any non-empty set of open tiles summing to the dice total, e.g. 8 = 8 or 5+3 or 4+3+1. Every member must still be open.
Stuck (no move): A roll whose total cannot be made from any group of open tiles. It ends the turn immediately.
Penalty: The sum of the tiles still open when your turn ends, from 0 to 45. The lowest penalty wins the round.
Shut the box: Shutting all nine tiles — an instant win that ends the game on the spot.
Round: One complete turn for every player, each starting from a fresh box of nine open tiles. Lowest penalty after the round wins.
45: The sum of all tiles 1+2+…+9 — the worst possible penalty, taken by a player who never shuts a tile.