In card game

Card game

A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...

s, a meld is a set of matching cards, typically three or more, that earn a player points and/or allow him to deplete his hand. Melds typically come in sequences of ascending cards belonging to the same suit (8♠ 9♠ 10♠) or groups of cards of identical rank (8♠ 8♣ 8♥).

Melding is typical in games of the Rummy family

Rummy

Rummy is a group of card games notable for gameplay based on the matching of similar playing cards. The Mexican game of Conquian is considered by David Parlett to be ancestral to all rummy games, which itself is derived from a Chinese game called Khanhoo and, going even further back,...

, such as Canasta

Canasta

Canasta is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for 2, 3, 5 or 6 players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two standard decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of 7 cards of the same rank and...

 and Gin

Gin rummy

Gin rummy, or simply gin, is a two-player card game created in 1909 by Elwood T. Baker and his son C. Graham Baker. According to John Scarne, Gin evolved from 18th-century Whiskey Poker and was created with the intention of being faster than standard rummy, but less spontaneous than knock...

. It is also used in other games such a mahjong

Mahjong

Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players...

. Melds are also made in some trick-taking games, such as Pinochle

Pinochle

Pinochle or Binocle is a trick-taking game typically for two to four players and played with a 48 card deck. Derived from the card game bezique, players score points by trick-taking and also by forming combinations of cards into melds. It is thus considered part of a "trick-and-meld" category...

 and Bezique

Bezique

Bezique is a 19th-century French melding and trick-taking card game for two players derived from Marriage via Briscan by the addition of more scoring features, notably the peculiar liaison of Q and J, under the names Bésigue, Binokel, Pinochle, etc., according to the country.-History:Bezique was...

.