gamify
Americanverb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of gamify
Explanation
To gamify a task or activity is to make it into a game, especially online. If taking out the trash were gamified, you’d earn points each time, with bonus points for speed, and you’d be trying to get your name on the leaderboard! The word gamify first appeared in the early 2000s, when there was a surge in online activity of all kinds. Now many apps and websites are gamified, such as those for fitness, shopping, music lessons, or language learning. Points, rewards, levels, challenges, races, and badges are some of the features used in gamifying. Offline activities can also be gamified as a way to motivate and engage people.
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:
Some gamify spending or offer consumers a high-stakes, lottery-like experience, while others try to make saving feel less like drudgery.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
Finch’s approach to wellness is to gamify self-care.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
The race to gamify and financialize everything—death and destruction included—proliferates a nihilistic culture, one that rejects the sanctity of human life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
But looking to further gamify the system, activists are pushing for similar protest votes in other states, including Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Washington.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2024
Too Good To Go has tried to gamify buying leftover food.
From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2022
"I think it's getting out and about, but still having that gamified technical side to it," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026
Ernst & Young offers a gamified accounting simulation on college campuses that lets prospective interns test their decision-making skills and get feedback.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
“My kid comes home and she doesn’t tell me about her teacher, she doesn’t tell me about her classmates. She tells me about JiJi the penguin from her gamified learning app.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2026
Dr Neil Stanley, sleep expert and author of the book How to Sleep Well, argues that gamifying sleep is creating more disordered sleeping.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
“All of a sudden, you’re gamifying it,” she says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
If we are gamifying life-and-death issues, it could really negatively influence culture and society in a way we don’t like.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 10, 2025
Q: You have a policy about gamifying return to work.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 10, 2023
Web3 dangles a different promise — that by gamifying and even financializing the notion of feedback, it can lubricate a robust community that is available to all.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 14, 2022
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
