Meaning of game in English

game

noun

/ɡeɪm/ us

/ɡeɪm/

game noun (FUN ACTIVITY/SPORT)

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A1 [ C ]

an entertaining activity or sport, especially one played by children, or the equipment needed for such an activity:

a board game

indoor/computer games

game of The children played a game of cops and robbers.

I told the children to put their toys and games away.

A2 [ C ]

a particular competition, match, or occasion when people play a game:

game of He invited me to play a game of chess/tennis/baseball.

[ C ]

one part of a competition in activities such as tennis:

I won the first game, and then lost the next two.

games [ plural ]

(also physical education, PE)

organized sports activities that children do at school:

the games teacher

an organized competition consisting of several different sports events:

the Olympic/Commonwealth Games

[ U ]

the way in which a person plays a particular sport:

Susan is playing golf every day to try to improve her game.

[ S ]

something that is not treated seriously:

Love is just a game to him.

More examplesFewer examples

After the game, the players were tired and demoralized.
We need two dice to play the game.
A painful injury forced her to withdraw from the game.
At the end of the game, there was a surge of fans onto the field.
Your jigsaw puzzles and games are all mixed up together in that box. Shall we sort them out?

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Pastimes - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Competitions, & parts of competitions

General terms used in ball sports

Parts & stages of competitions

Sports & games generally

game noun (ACTIVITY)

[ S ] informal

an illegal or secret activity

[ S ] old-fashioned informal

a type of business activity:

I'm in the stocks and shares game.

on the game

UK informal

working as a prostitute:

go on the game She went on the game to pay for her drug habit.

US informal

involved in illegal activities:

You know his whole family's on the game - they work with the mob!

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Crime - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Business - general words

game noun (ANIMALS)

[ U ]

wild animals and birds that are hunted for food or sport:

game bird Her father taught her how to hunt game birds.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Hunting & fishing

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Ducks, geese & game birds

Meat - general words

Grammar

Play or game?

Play as a noun means ‘a piece of dramatic writing for the theatre or radio or television’: …

Play

Play as a noun means ‘a piece of dramatic writing for the theatre or radio or television’: …

Game

Game is a noun. We use it to talk about sports or other entertaining activities: …

Idioms

be ahead of the game
be new to this game
be a game of two halves
game on!
game over
in the game
the game is up
the games (that) people play
give the game away
is the game worth the candle?

More idioms

play the long game

what's your game?

game

adjective

/ɡeɪm/ us

/ɡeɪm/

willing to do things that are new, difficult, or that involve risks:

It was a difficult challenge, but Roberta was game.

game for She's game for anything.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Ready and willing

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game

verb

/ɡeɪm/ us

/ɡeɪm/

game verb (USE SYSTEM)

[ T ] usually disapproving

to use the rules of a system in order to get what you want, in a way that is slightly dishonest:

game the system State education officials deny that they are gaming the system by making their tests easier.

The gas company has gamed the market and figured out how to undermine competition.

The problem with these precise rules is that they can be gamed.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Using and misusing

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game verb (PLAY)

[ I ]

to play computer games:

He spends most of his free time gaming.

I don't plan to game on this laptop — I'll use it mainly for watching videos.

Related word

gaming

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Miscellaneous games & activities

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Phrasal verb

game something out

(Definition of game from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

game | American Dictionary

game

noun

/ɡeɪm/

game noun (ENTERTAINMENT)

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[ C ]

an entertaining activity, esp. one played by children, or a sports competition:

a baseball/basketball/football/soccer game

The kids are playing a computer game.

I told the children to put away their toys and games (= equipment for an entertaining activity).

Search dogs do an important job, but it’s just a game to the dog (= something that is done for fun).

Not telling the whole truth is one of the games that people play (= one of the ways in which they behave in order to get an advantage).

[ C ]

In some activities such as tennis, a game is one part of a competition:

I’m ahead, 3 games to 2.

game noun (ANIMALS)

[ U ]

wild animals and birds that are hunted for food or sport:

Deer and pheasant are types of game.

game

adjective

/ɡeɪm/

game adjective (WILLING)

willing to do something, esp something different, new, or slightly dangerous:

The ocean water’s cold but I’m going in anyway – are you game?

(Definition of game from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

game | Business English

game

noun [ S ]

informal

/ɡeɪm/ us

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a particular type of business activity:

I'm in the stocks and shares game.

be ahead of the game

to know more about what is happening in a particular area of business than the people or companies you are competing against:

Our research and development program ensures that we're ahead of the game.

be new to the/this game informal

to be involved in an activity or situation that you have not experienced before:

The company is new to the political advertising game.

the game is up

used to tell someone that you know what their secret activities or plans are and that they cannot continue:

It is a characteristic of disgraced business leaders that they can never quite accept that the game is up.

Examples of game

game

Take the three-person game introduced above and suppose the players' beliefs are as specified.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Hence, it is difficult to explain why players would conceive of the simultaneous move game in sequential terms.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Here, altruistic players always do better than selfish players if they are fully altruistic or if the game is symmetric.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Every outcome is therefore rationalizable in the game with altruistic players.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They have not studied directly the effect of depletion upon the remaining players and the characteristics of their game.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We generalize some recent results developed in static policy games with multiple players, to a dynamic context.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is no reason to denigrate the contributions of coalitional game theory, either on the applied or the theoretical level.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

How, then, do they learn to accept such rules of the game?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In law, in computer science, in mathematics, in economics, in politics, there are many things that have nothing to do with game theory.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Here, the above discussed enforcing of transitions is used to emulate the "exchange of tokens" which can take place in the bisimulation game.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this framework it makes little sense to ask people to report preferences over outcomes in a game defined only by payoffs.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Adjustments were made via a multibutton game pad sensed by the computer.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Suppose the game has reached the final decision node.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When the researcher finished reading the story to the child, she stopped the music, and proposed a game.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We play a few games until the supper is ready.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of game

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with game

game

These are words often used in combination with game.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

all-star game

It acted as an all-star game for rookies.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

away game

Any person would, of course, be allowed to drive away game from his holding.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

baseball game

On the other side of the continuum would be, for example, intense focus during batting at a baseball game.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with game

What is the pronunciation of game?

Translations of game

in Chinese (Traditional)

有趣的活動／運動, （尤指兒童玩的）遊戲，運動, 遊戲用具，運動器具…

in Chinese (Simplified)

有趣的活动／运动, （尤指儿童玩的）游戏，运动, 游戏用具，运动器具…

in Spanish

juego, partido, partida…

in Portuguese

jogo, partida, truque…

in more languages

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in Italian

खेळ, एखादा विशिष्ट खेळ, सामना किंवा स्पर्धा…

ゲーム, スポーツ, 試合…

(eğlence, spor) oyun, oyun…

jeu [masculine], partie [feminine], match [masculine]…

joc, partit, partida…

spel, wedstrijd, game…

ஒரு பொழுதுபோக்கு செயல்பாடு அல்லது விளையாட்டு, குறிப்பாக குழந்தைகள் விளையாடும் ஒன்று அல்லது அத்தகைய செயலுக்குத் தேவையான உபகரணங்கள், ஒரு குறிப்பிட்ட போட்டி…

(बच्चों के लिए) खेल, गेम, मैच…

રમત, સ્પર્ધા, રમતનો એક ભાગ…

leg, spil, kamp…

lek, spel, match…

permainan, perlawanan, buruan…

das Spiel, das Wildbret, entschlossen…