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Glite Dictionary
🤼 A wild fight 🎮 Every-player match
free-for-all

free-for-all

1 4.1
A game mode where each player plays alone against all others
  • noun
  • /ˈfriːfɔrˌɔl/
  • Jargon
translation icon : todos contra todos
  • There are only two gameplay modes for you to choose from: Deathmatch, which is a free-for-all, and Zone Control, where you have to take over checkpoints with your team.

Examples

  • There are no rules, an AntiCheat plugin, and free-for-all PvP.

    Blog text (6)

  • Van Allen's second alternative is a "free-for-all system (like the Internet) entirely dependent on the authors' competence and their willingness to stake their reputations on their manuscripts as written."

    Academic text (1995)

  • A preschool physical education program that focuses on play is not a "free for all" or "anything goes" environment.

    Academic text (1992)

  • I personally love the free-for-all dog pile nature of EVE and would be sad if that ever changed.

    Blog text (13)

  • I also feel as though the stages are way too small for a 4-player free-for-all.

    Blog text (24)

  • It's an ooze free-for-all.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • In the game, every player enters a free-for-all match where they can attack anyone without forming teams.

  • The tournament featured a free-for-all format, allowing each participant to compete against all others for the prize.

  • During the event, the free-for-all battle began, with players fighting independently to be the last one standing.

Synonyms

FFA
vsfree-for-all
  • Informal
7.5

A situation where everyone fights or competes without any rules

has the same meaning but is the full phrase used for multiplayer matches

Antonyms

team sport
17 2.6

A sport where players work together in teams to play against another team

How Team-Based

team sport
17 2.6
co-op
  • Jargon
3.7
battle royal
  • Jargon
4.8
free-for-all
  • Jargon
1 4.1

Surface Forms

free-for-all singular
free-for-alls plural

Morphology

free-for-all = free + all (transparent) = for + free + all

In the gaming sense the phrase directly conveys 'open to everyone, every player against every other', which learners can readily infer from the parts. [Postprocessing: moved 'for' from base_words to prefix]

Etymology

Free-for-all comes from the simple parts free 'not controlled' and all 'everyone'. So in games a free-for-all is a match where every player fights alone against everyone else, with no teams or alliances.