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up vote 29 down vote favorite
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This is hard to describe, but I'm curious about what the proper word is for these thingies in English.

So I searched for a picture on Google and circled what I'm referring to with red:

Puzzle piece with the questionable parts circled with red.

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My brain has decided they're called "knobs", but I've absolutely no proof anyone else calls them that. – Yamikuronue Nov 8 '11 at 13:15
We always called them "bobbles" (or perhaps "blobbles"). – Colin Fine Nov 8 '11 at 13:47
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Pretty obscure. I don't think most English speakers know a word for that. – Joe Nov 8 '11 at 14:40
@Joe That was my first thought. I love doing puzzles and I've never called them anything. – JustinY Nov 8 '11 at 15:57

5 Answers

up vote 31 down vote accepted

This kind of puzzle is called a jigsaw puzzle, and looking at the corresponding Wikipedia page, it uses the terms tabs and blanks. (The parts you've circled are the tabs.)

Looking further throws up many citations for this usage: this book on DNA computing calls them jigsaw tabs (and pockets), this book on programming also mentions interlocking tabs, this issue of Make magazine calls them jigsaw tabs (and slots), and there are lots of other books. There seems to be more consensus on what to call the circled pieces you want (tabs) and less on what to call the other kind (blanks, pockets, slots, indents...).

You can also trawl through search results for jigsaw (tab OR tongue OR outie), to compare the answers suggested. (Need to look at each result individually to make sure the word is used in the right context. In fact most results aren't about the context we want. :-))

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Thanks! I'm accepting your answer because you also added the blanks term. :) – Venemo Nov 8 '11 at 12:05
@Venemo: Unfortunately, I just updated my answer to show that blanks may not be universal. :-) But tabs seems to be used widely. – ShreevatsaR Nov 8 '11 at 12:07
up vote 18 down vote

Speaking as a fully-qualified jigsaw puzzle solver, I can say that the standard word is an outie. Terminology shared with belly-buttons, except normally only jigsaw outies interlock with innies.

According to this glossary people also call them tabs or knobs, but the problem there is they don't have an obvious term for the corresponding innie, so I'd stick with outie. A jigsaw is a game anyway, so there's nothing wrong with using childish terminology.

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Innie and outie sounds a bit more casual than tab and blank. – Venemo Nov 8 '11 at 12:06
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Oh, before your edit I thought that "fully-qualified jigsaw puzzle solver" meant that you had participated in some state-/national-level jigsaw puzzle-solving competitions or something like that. :-) I would be disappointed to learn that no such thing exists. – ShreevatsaR Nov 8 '11 at 12:19
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@ShreevatsaR: Nah - my qualifications aren't quite so formally-recognised. But I did spend a lot of time in hospital throughout my childhood, and there wasn't much else to do there for several weeks every year! – FumbleFingers Nov 8 '11 at 12:59
up vote 6 down vote

All I can suggest is tongue, as in the joint in carpentry known as tongue and groove.

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up vote 5 down vote

Looking at the Wikipedia article on jigsaw puzzles, they use the word tab:

Some fully interlocking puzzles have pieces all of a similar shape, with rounded tabs out on opposite ends, with corresponding blanks cut into the intervening sides to receive the tabs of adjacent pieces.

(emphasis added)

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up vote 3 down vote

I believe 'tenon' and 'mortice' are the appropriate technical terms.

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That's interesting, considering everything else suggested on this page doesn't mention either. What leads you to this conclusion? – Matt Эллен Mar 14 '12 at 21:25
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@MattЭллен: I don't know about jigsaw puzzles, but these are the preferred terms in woodworking en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortise_and_tenon. I, personally, would find it natural to borrow terms from woodworking (if they didn't exist already). And so, I +1'd it. But that's just what I'm inclined to do. – prash Mar 14 '12 at 21:31
but then, I'm not an expert at woodworking either. Though "mortice and tenon" is a very specific kind of joint, the same terms are used for a few other types of joints. – prash Mar 14 '12 at 21:53
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+1: Given that jigsaw puzzles originated in woodworking, I think this is a plausible conjecture. I am used to seeing it spelled mortise, however, but either is correct. – Robusto Apr 8 '12 at 14:29

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