game
1 Americannoun
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games
plural
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an amusement or pastime.
children's games.
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the material or equipment used in playing certain games.
The store started selling toys and games.
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a competitive activity involving skill, chance, or endurance on the part of two or more persons who play according to a set of rules, usually for their own amusement or for that of spectators.
Flag football is a game growing in popularity.
- Synonyms:
- competition, contest, sport
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a single occasion of such an activity, or a definite portion of one.
the final game of the season;
a rubber of three games at bridge.
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the number of points required to win a game.
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the score at a particular stage in a game.
With five minutes to play, the game was 7 to 0.
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a particular manner or style of playing a game.
Her game of chess is improving.
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anything resembling a game, as in requiring skill, endurance, or adherence to rules.
She's an expert at the game of diplomacy.
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a trick or strategy.
They can see through your game.
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something treated lightly or lacking in seriousness; sport.
That's enough of your games!
When I was young, love was just a game to me.
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wild animals, including birds and fishes, such as those hunted for food or taken for sport or profit.
The area is particularly rich in game.
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the flesh of such wild animals, used as food.
The cook made a dish of game.
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any object of pursuit, attack, abuse, etc..
The new boy at school seemed to be fair game for practical jokers.
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Informal. a business or profession.
He's in the real-estate game.
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Informal. the ability to attract or charm romantic or sexual partners.
He's got no game—hasn't had a date in months.
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Archaic. fighting spirit; pluck.
adjective
verb (used without object)
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games,
present (3rd person singular)
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gamed,
past participle, past
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gaming
present participle
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to play games of chance for stakes; gamble.
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Digital Technology. to play computer or video games.
verb (used with object)
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games,
present (3rd person singular)
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gamed,
past participle, past
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gaming
present participle
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to squander in games of chance (usually followed byaway ).
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to manipulate to one's advantage, especially by trickery; attempt to take advantage of.
The policy is flawed and many people try to game the system.
idioms
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off one’s game,
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Sports. playing badly.
You can tell the pitcher's off his game—he's walked three batters in a row.
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not performing as well as usual.
The showrunner and her writers are off their game, and episodes this season drag on without the humor and lightness fans had come to expect.
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play games, to act in an evasive, deceitful, manipulative, or trifling manner in dealing with others.
Don't play games with me—I want to know if you love me or not!
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play the game,
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to act or play in accordance with the rules.
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to act honorably or justly.
We naively assumed that our allies would continue to play the game.
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die game,
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to die after a brave struggle.
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to remain steadfast or in good spirits at the moment of defeat.
He knew that as a candidate he didn't have a chance in the world, but he campaigned anyway and died game.
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make game of, to make fun of; ridicule.
It's cruel to make game of the weak and defenseless.
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on one’s game,
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Sports. playing well.
You need to recruit experienced players who will be on their game coming straight off the bench.
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performing well, or as well as usual.
She’s been noticeably sharper and really on her game since she came back from vacation.
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talk a big / good game, to make exaggerated claims or promise extraordinary results.
The PR team talks a big game, but revenue for their department has been flat for three years running.
adjective
noun
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an amusement or pastime; diversion
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a contest with rules, the result being determined by skill, strength, or chance
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a single period of play in such a contest, sport, etc
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the score needed to win a contest
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a single contest in a series; match
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(plural; often capital) an event consisting of various sporting contests, esp in athletics
Olympic Games
Highland Games
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equipment needed for playing certain games
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short for computer game
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style or ability in playing a game
he is a keen player but his game is not good
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a scheme, proceeding, etc, practised like a game
the game of politics
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an activity undertaken in a spirit of levity; joke
marriage is just a game to him
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wild animals, including birds and fish, hunted for sport, food, or profit
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( as modifier )
game laws
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the flesh of such animals, used as food: generally taken not to include fish
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an object of pursuit; quarry; prey (esp in the phrase fair game )
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informal work or occupation
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informal a trick, strategy, or device
I can see through your little game
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obsolete pluck or courage; bravery
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slang prostitution (esp in the phrase on the game )
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to reveal one's intentions or a secret
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to make fun of; ridicule; mock
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playing badly
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playing well
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to behave fairly or in accordance with rules
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there is no longer a chance of success
adjective
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informal full of fighting spirit; plucky; brave
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informal extremely brave; indomitable
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informal (usually foll by for) prepared or ready; willing
I'm game for a try
verb
adjective
Usage
What does game mean? A game is an activity for amusement, particularly with rules that guide the action, like musical chairs. A game is also the materials needed to play certain games, such as a checkerboard and disks for playing checkers. A game is also a competitive activity, like football, or a single occasion of the activity. To game is to play computer or video games or to gamble. To game is used figuratively to mean to cheat or manipulate to one’s advantage. Example: I have never been to a game that was this slow and boring.
Synonym Usage
See play.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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gamesimple
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gamessimple
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have gamedperfect
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has gamedperfect
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am gamingprogressive
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are gamingprogressive
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is gamingprogressive
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have been gamingperfect progressive
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has been gamingperfect progressive
Past
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gamedsimple
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had gamedperfect
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was gamingprogressive
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were gamingprogressive
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had been gamingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of game1
First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun game, gam, gamme “joy; pleasure; sport; hunting,” Old English gaman, gomen; cognate with Old High German gaman “glee”
Origin of game2
First recorded in 1775–85; origin uncertain
Explanation
A game is a contest or pastime. Football, checkers, Monopoly, volleyball, Ms. Pacman — they're all fun games to play. Some games are simple, like Connect Four or Tic Tac Toe. Others are played for millions of dollars, like professional basketball. Games usually have winners and losers, and people play them because they're fun. Other meanings of this word have less to do with playing: If you're a salesperson, you could say you're in the sales game. Wild animals that you hunt and eat are called game. And being game can mean you have disabled feet or legs.
Vocabulary lists containing game
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Grand Theft Auto 6 maker Rockstar Games has issued a statement addressing a series of leaked videos showing the upcoming blockbuster video game.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Pirela, the Padres’ roving catching instructor, was with the organization’s triple-A affiliate in El Paso during its home game Aug. 15 against the Salt Lake City Bees, an Angels affiliate.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Callum Borchers shares some tips on how to look like a good worker, based on conversations with people who make employee-monitoring systems—and others who game the systems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
GTA 6, due to be released on PlayStation 5 and Xbox consoles in November, is still expected to be the biggest video game launch of the decade.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Leaving the game trail, I started picking my way through the underbrush in the direction of the commotion.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
Thursday's victory over Rapid Vienna on penalties secured a place in Friday's league phase draw for the Conference League and two games each in October, November and December.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The scoring format, designed to shorten matches in the first three rounds, features sets to four games, with a tiebreaker at 4-all and a 10-point tiebreaker instead of a third set.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
"There are stacks of games on everybody's shelves," Sharma said.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
A foot injury caused Robinson to miss the final seven games of the season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
One time, a few years ago, I just about came unglued in an arcade when I couldn’t get a pair of SpongeBob sunglasses in one of those claw games.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
Mike Demopoulos, a 40-year-old gamer in Minnesota who works in web hosting and has a Pac-Man tattoo, subscribed to SuperPower soon after reading about the clean-energy initiative.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
GameStop said Thursday that one gamer in Columbus, Ohio, visited one of its locations to trade in some of his old physical games for store credit.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 2, 2026
A venue in Rotterdam turned itself over to fantasy dress-up and gamer fanaticism on the weekend, with thousands attending TwitchCon Europe.
From Barron's ● May 30, 2026
The streamer, known online as Chantelle Plays, felt the price cut was a "big win" for the casual gamer as they no longer have to subsidise the Call of Duty addition.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
With that and the day being kind of drizzly, nobody is out there except two gamer kids sitting on their raincoats stealthily playing Switch with their backs against the wall where teachers can’t see them.
From "Popcorn" by Rob Harrell
“He was one of the coolest, neatest, kindest, gamest horses I’ll ever have. When I saw him in there, my heart sank.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2017
Lots of good intentions and the gamest efforts of able leading actors, respectively Gary Oldman and Ed Harris, could not breathe life into those turkeys.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2010
Filion, who won 17 races with him in '68, says fondly: "He was the gamest horse I ever saw."
From Time Magazine Archive
Little Old Man Ledoux, gamest of the game.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Ain’t she the gamest little thoroughbred ever?” he chuckled to himself.
From Crooked Trails and Straight by D. C. Hutchison
Unlike sports or elections, he said, there’s no regulator keeping watch over whether a reality show market is being run — or gamed — fairly.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Speaking ahead of the summit, UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper described the deal as a "common-sense approach" and said she wants to ensure systems "can't be unfairly gamed".
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
Then we should tighten the existing R&D tax credit, a benefit that is being gamed by firms that are no longer at the cutting edge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
But under a "worst-case scenario" gamed out by Eurasia Group, damage to Iran's oilfields permanently hits the country's exports, while the precarity to Hormuz traffic persists.
From Barron's ● Mar. 2, 2026
Eisman didn’t know exactly how the rating agencies had been gamed.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
In an interview with the BBC, she said rising hardware costs partly driven by AI spending mean firms need to find ways to make gaming affordable.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
Take Two is asking for identifying information associated with the online profiles and activity tied to the leaks, which have generated considerable buzz in the gaming world.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Esports, meaning electronic sports, is the name for competitive video gaming.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
Outside of gaming, media and entertainment is the biggest industry for Epic Games, said Bill Clifford, senior vice president of the Unreal Ecosystem.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
I walked downstairs, past his unmade bed, past the gaming chairs beneath the TV.
From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
