This is a terminology/nomenclature question in the context of grid based games, specifically the game of Pentomino. I'm not a native English speaker, so I feel like I would easily miss something.
In Pentomino, each play piece covers exactly five cells of a grid. These cells/tiles then belong to the same play piece; they are "connected".
I am looking for a name for a set of tiles that is known to be connected without knowing which piece they belong to. For instance, four connected tiles in a row may belong to an L-, Y- or I-piece. So these tiles form an incomplete piece. How should I call this set of tiles?
As an example from a different game: In the game of Go, stones placed on the board grid by the same player that are (transitively) adjacent are "connected". They are often called a "group" or (more science-y) a "string".
So far, my best guess is to call a connected set of tiles in Pentomino a "string". Would this be understandable? Are there better options?