zero-sum game
9
6.4
- noun
- /ˈziːroʊ sʌm ɡeɪm/
:
juego de suma cero
- Viewed globally, this system of wagers is a giant zero-sum game.
- playing a zero-sum game
Examples
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Thurow, for example, competition between nations is a zero-sum game: one nation's gain is another nation's loss.
Academic text (1993) -
The way I look at it, life is a zero sum game.
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With the cap set first, there is a zero-sum game; if one source gets more, other companies will get less.
Academic text (2007) -
Indeed, disputes over water are thought of as a zero-sum game.
Academic text (2006) -
Under such conditions, the political struggle tends to approach a zero-sum game in which the defeated lose all.
Academic text (1998) -
Gambling is a zero-sum game; each day that Goldman won $100 million, the other bettors lost.
Academic text (2010) -
Von Neumann showed that every two-person, zero-sum game with a finite number of strategies has a solution.
Academic text (1998) -
In a situation where one competitor's gain comes at the expense of another's, it's clear that this is a zero-sum game.
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Negotiating a raise can sometimes feel like a zero-sum game where one employee's success means another's failure.
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The debate about resource allocation often turns into a zero-sum game, with limited benefits for both sides.
Synonyms
24
7.7
A situation where gains and losses cancel each other out
Surface Forms
Morphology
zero-sum + game
The phrase is compositionally built from the mathematical terms 'zero' + 'sum' modifying 'game', so a learner who knows those words can plausibly infer it denotes a game where gains and losses balance to zero. However, the meaning is somewhat technical/abstract (a specific economic/mathematical concept) rather than everyday literal imagery, so comprehension is not fully immediate for a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
Zero-sum game comes from a simple math picture: the words zero and sum mean all gains and losses add up to zero, like one pie where every slice someone takes leaves less for others. So a zero-sum game means a situation where 'one person's gain is another's loss'.