Domino is a word that refers to a series of events that start with a single simple action but eventually lead to larger-than-expected consequences. It’s the kind of domino effect that we see in movies or hear about in the news: a car accident can trigger a chain reaction that results in the shutdown of a major highway or a large business can lose its insurance coverage, which in turn leads to an inability to pay its creditors, and so on.
The individual domino pieces are called tiles or bones, and the set of them usually contains 28 dominoes. Each domino has an identifying mark on one side and a blank or identically patterned other side. Most of the marks are arrangements of dots, or pips, like those on dice; some are blank. Some games require that a domino be matched with another with the same number of pips on each side. Other games allow for a variety of match types, including matching halves or matching across.
Many people enjoy using dominoes as toys by stacking them on end in long lines. When a domino is tipped over, it gives off a certain amount of energy, which then moves on to the next domino in the line and so on until all of the dominoes topple over. Some people even use them to create artistic designs, or to make domino puzzles that can take hours to complete.
In the world of sports, domino is a term that refers to an event in which a player’s success depends on the actions of other players. For example, in tennis, a person who loses a point often finds themselves losing the entire game. A domino effect can also be applied to the world of politics, where one election result can influence the outcomes of other elections, or to personal affairs, where one small event can have major repercussions.
There are countless variations of domino rules and games, but most of them fit into four categories: blocking and scoring games, skill-based games, and round games. In most of these games, the winner is determined by the number of tiles left in the stock at the end of play, and some allow for byeing (taking extra tiles from the stock).
The Most Common Domino Games
Probably the best known domino game is Draw Dominos, where each player draws their hand without looking at it. Then they play a domino from their hand that matches the numbered pips on the domino they already have in their hand. If the match is successful, the player then adds that domino to their hand and continues playing. If a player draws more than the number of dominoes they are allowed to have for their hand, this is referred to as an overdraw and the player must return the additional tiles to the stock after they are played. The player to their right may then buy those dominoes.