What Is Solitaire?

There are a few terms that you will need to become familiar with in order to understand the help text that is available for each game variation. Although Solitaire is played the world over, and thus has many different terms that mean the same thing, I have settled on a specific set of terms and they are given below:

Card Piles

There are 4 different types of piles. The general characteristics of each is given below. Depending upon the variation of Solitaire you're playing, there will usually be specific restrictions on a number of other characteristics of the pile. A list of these characteristic restrictions is also given below.

Pile Types:

Foundation:
Where the cards are moved to during game play in order to win the game. Most variations are won by moving all cards to the Foundation. If the variation rules permit it, YaZZle will also allow you to play from the Foundation to another pile type.
Reserve:
Only used in some variations, these piles are typically used as temporary storage locations. A good example of a variation that makes use of Reserve piles is FreeCell.
Tableau:
Where the cards are initially dealt to at the beginning of a new game and where most game play takes place during the game.
Stock:
At the beginning of a game, this is the pile of cards left after the initial cards have been dealt to the Tableau. Some variations allow the Stock cards to be dealt to a Waste pile as part of the game play. A few allow play from the Stock directly to the Foundation or to the Tableau.
Waste:
Only used in some variations, this pile is typically used as a place to deal cards from the Stock to make them available for play.

Pile Restrictions:

Alternating Color:
Many variations require a given pile type to have its cards in alternating color order. Tableau piles often have this restriction.
Count:
Some variations will restrict the number of cards that are allowed within a given pile type. FreeCell Reserve piles are a good example of such a restriction since you may only have one card in a given Reserve pile at a time.
Like Suit:
Many variations require a given pile of a given pile type to have its cards all be of the same suit. Foundation piles typically must have this property and is one of the main reasons why many variations only have 4 Foundation piles.
Rank Ordering:
Many variations require a given pile type to have its cards in ascending order by rank, with no rank gaps from one card to the next. Foundation piles typically have this restriction. The Tableau piles found in many Klondike-like variations also have this requirement.
Rank Start:
Many variations require a given pile type to have a card of a specific rank as its starting or bottom-most card. Foundation piles typically must start with an Ace for instance. A few variations such as Canfield or Four Seasons will assign a different starting rank to its Foundation piles for each new game played. Tableau piles may have this requirement as well, such as only allowing a stack of cards to be moved to an empty pile if the stack of cards starts with a King. Some of the variations within YaZZle will disregard this "Kings Only" restriction if you are playing in Easy mode but will enforce the restriction if you are playing in Hard mode.
Wrapping:
A few variations allow a King to be played on top of an Ace and/or an Ace to be played on top of a King. This is known as rank wrapping or just wrapping. The Golf variation uses this restriction as a way to distinguish between its Easy and Hard modes of play.