🎲 A matchstick game 🤏 To steal quickly

nim

1 9.9

A game with rows of sticks where players take turns removing sticks and the last stick decides the winner

noun
/nɪm/

: nim

She started pelting him with the sour nim berries.

Examples

Of the twenty-five nims he planted, only three survived.

Fiction book (1995)
In the game of nim, players must strategically choose how many matchsticks to remove from piles.
So in Nim, in Nim, if the piles are unequal at the start, then one can force a win.
During the family gathering, we played nim with matchsticks and laughed over who would win.
My friends and I learned the rules of nim quickly and enjoyed several rounds in the park.

Compounds

nim tree

Indian

9.9

A large almost evergreen tree from Asia whose bitter bark and oil are used in medicine and repel insects

Surface Forms

nim singular

nims plural

Etymology

Nim for the simple take-away game probably comes from old words like nimm, a German command, or the old English root niman, both meaning 'to take'. Because players keep taking sticks or pieces, the name fits the game's main action.