🃏 Bridge player 🗣️ A person stating

declarer

1 8.1

In bridge, the player who wins the bid and plays both hands

noun
/dɪˈklɛrər/

Jargon

: declarador

As the declarer, she needed to carefully plan every move to fulfill the contract.

Examples

In this game, Sarah is the declarer.
After the bidding phase, he became the declarer and took charge of the play.
The declarer chose no trumps, surprising everyone at the table.
The declarer played the hand brilliantly.
In contract bridge, the declarer decides the trump suit and plays both their own and partner's cards.
When it's your turn, as the declarer, you will play the hand according to your declared contract.
The declarer announced the bid confidently, signaling their strategy for the upcoming round.

Synonyms

contractor

vsdeclarer

Jargon

2 8.6

The player who wins the bidding and names the trump suit in bridge

plays both hands and sets the contract rather than just naming the trump suit

Surface Forms

declarer singular

declarers plural

Morphology

declarer = declare (transparent) = declare + er

Agent nominalization from 'declare' is morphologically regular; in bridge it denotes the player who declares the contract, a domain-specific application but derivationally straightforward.

Etymology

Declarer comes from Latin parts de- 'completely' and clarare 'make clear', and is related to the English word clear. In bridge a declarer is the player who 'announces' the contract and then plays the hands to try to make that announcement come true, so the name fits the role.