Bingo Lingo
Going to play bingo in the real world (as opposed to online bingo) for the first time can be a bit daunting. People speak a funny language and refer to all sorts of things that they seem to think you should know about. This bingo lingo or bingo slang doesn’t take too long to learn and once you know it makes you feel more part of the bingo community.
Depending where you play, people will use different terms. It’s not all ‘two fat ladies’ all the time – most bingo halls will say ‘8 and 8, eighty eight’ in order to speed up the play and get in as many bingo sessions as possible.
There are also all sorts of online chat abbreviations and acronoyms – check out our dictionary of online bingo chat terms to learn more and blend in at your local online bingo room.
Generally, you will find that in ‘real world’ bingo halls the old fashioned bingo slang is no longer used, unless you are at a seaside resort that largely caters to tourists who are not regular bingo players.
The generally accepted bingo calls (or bingo slang) are:
- 1 Kelly’s Eye / On its Own / At the Beginning / Start the Game / Number one, just begun
- 2 One Little Duck (until the 1980s there was also a call of Dirty old Jew but this is fortunately no longer used)
- 3 Cup of Tea / One Little Flea / My little Fly / Dixie Lee
- 4 Knock at the Door
- 5 Man Alive / Jack’s alive
- 6 Just a Click / chopsticks
- 7 Lucky for Some / hope in heaven
- 8 One Fat Lady / The Garden Gate
- 9 Doctor’s Orders (named after “Number 9 pill”)
- 10 Big Ben
- 11 Chicken Legs/Legs Eleven
- 13 Unlucky for Some / Lucky for Some
- 16 Sweet Sixteen
- 17 Never been kissed
- 21 Key of the Door
- 22 Two Little Ducks / all the twos / dinky doo
- 23 Thee and Me
- 24 Two Dozen
- 26 Half a Crown/Pick and Mix/bed and breakfast
- 30 Dirty Gertie
- 33 Come in For Ya Tea/all the threes/Feathers
- 37 More Than Eleven
- 38 You’re Late/Top Date
- 39 All the steps (after John Buchan’s novel The Thirty-Nine Steps
- 40 Over the Hill
- 44 Droopy Drawers/All the fours
- 45 Halfway There
- 50 Bulls eye/Blind 50/Halfway House/Hawaii
- 51 Tweak of the Thumb
- 55 Snakes Alive/All the Fives
- 57 Heinz Varieties
- 59 Brighton Line
- 64 Red Raw/knock on the door/you’re poor/cats paw
- 66 Clickety-Click/All the sixes
- 69 Thats Rude / Two can chew
- 71 Bang on the Drum
- 72 In for a Poo
- 76 7 and 6 – Was she worth it?/Trombones
- 77 All the sevens/Seventy plus Seven
- 79 One More Time/Seventy plus nine
- 81 Stop and Run/Cinnamon Bun
- 86 Between the Sticks/Dogs dicks
- 88 Two Fat Ladies/All the eights
- 90 Top of the Shop/Top of the House
