game
Meanings
- A playful or competitive activity.
- A playful activity that may be unstructured; an amusement or pastime.
- An activity described by a set of rules, especially for the purpose of entertainment, often competitive or having an explicit goal.
- A school subject during which sports are practised.
- A particular instance of playing a game.
- That which is gained, such as the stake in a game.
- The number of points necessary to win a game.
- In some games, a point awarded to the player whose cards add up to the largest sum.
- The equipment that enables such activity, particularly as packaged under a title.
- One's manner, style, or performance in playing a game.
- Ellipsis of video game.
- A field of gainful activity, as an industry or profession.
- Willing and able to participate.
- That shows a tendency to continue to fight against another animal, despite being wounded, often severely.
- Persistent, especially in senses similar to the above.
- To gamble.
- To play card games, board games, or video games.
- To exploit loopholes in a system or bureaucracy in a way which defeats or nullifies the spirit of the rules in effect, usually to obtain a result which otherwise would be unobtainable.
- To perform premeditated seduction strategy.
- Injured, lame.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *gamaną Proto-West Germanic *gaman Old English gamen Middle English game English game From Middle English game, gamen, gammen, from Old English gamen (“sport, joy, mirth, pastime, game, amusement, pleasure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną (“amusement, pleasure, game", literally "participation, communion, people together”), from *ga- (collective prefix) + *mann- (“man”); or alternatively from *ga- + a root from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think, have in mind”). Cognate with Yola gaame, gaaume, gaume (“game”), Old Frisian game, gome (“joy, amusement, entertainment”), Dutch gemelijk (“cantankerous, crabbed”), Middle High German gamen (“joy, amusement, fun, pleasure”), Danish gammen (“merriment”), Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk gaman (“joy, fun”), Swedish gamman (“mirth, rejoicing, merriment”). Related to gammon, gamble.