

They are most commonly used for playing positional games. Western dominoes are first recorded in the mid-18th century in Italy and France and were apparently introduced into England by French prisoners toward the end of the 18th century. For this reason Chinese domino games are more comparable to Western card games. Thus, whereas a Western 5-3 is a 5 at one end and a 3 at the other, a Chinese 5-3 is 5 and 3 all over, just as in cards the 5 of clubs is a 5 and a club all over. Chinese dominoes apparently were designed to represent all possible throws with two dice, for Chinese dominoes (called “dotted cards”) have no blank faces and are traditionally used only for trick-taking games.

The historical relationship with Western dominoes is as yet unclear. The Inuit of North America play a domino-like game using sets consisting of as many as 148 pieces.ĭominoes originated in China, where dominoes or playing cards-the same word is used for both, and they are physically identical-are mentioned as early as the 10th century. Larger sets running up to 9-9 (58 pieces) and even 12-12 (91 pieces) are sometimes used. The identity-bearing face of each piece is divided, by a line or ridge, into two squares, each of which is marked with an arrangement of spots, or “pips,” like those used on a die, except that some squares are blank (indicated in the listing below by a zero). Like playing cards, of which they are a variant, dominoes bear identifying marks on one side and are blank or identically patterned on the other side. Dominoes are made of rigid material such as wood, bone, or plastic and are variously referred to as bones, pieces, men, stones, or cards. SpaceNext50 Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!ĭomino, small, flat, rectangular block used as gaming object.Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them! Saving Earth Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century.Britannica Beyond We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning.100 Women Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
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