game
[ɡeɪ̯m]noun, adjective, verb
game is spelled G-A-M-E. The wrong spelling people search most is gaem: about 230 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 357 of all searches for the word. Game is a noun meaning “A playful activity that may be unstructured; an amusement or pastime”. The plural of game is games.
How many letters and syllables are in game?
| Letters | 4: G-A-M-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 |
| In writing | 525 times per million words; the 184th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, gaem, about 230 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell game?
Game is spelled G-A-M-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 363 of the searches for game in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is game?
Game appears 525 times per million words in written English, the 184th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce game?
- /ɡeɪm/
- US [ɡeɪ̯m]
- British [ɡɛi̯m]
Game has one syllable.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-game.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with game
Also written: game, set and match.
Sources: English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with game?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as game.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: mega, mage.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of game
- games plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- gamer comparative
- gamest superlative
- gaming participle, present
- gamed participle, past
- more game comparative
- most game superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does game mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A playful activity that may be unstructured; an amusement or pastime.
Being a child is all fun and games.
- 2
An activity described by a set of rules, especially for the purpose of entertainment, often competitive or having an explicit goal.
Games in the classroom can make learning fun.
- 3
UKA school subject during which sports are practised.
- 4
A particular instance of playing a game.
Sally won the game.
- 5
Part of a set during which one player continuously serves (at least four rallies must be won to win a game, at least six games must be won to win the set).
Game, set and match!
- 6
That which is gained, such as the stake in a game.
- 7
The number of points necessary to win a game.
In short whist, five points are game, while in in table tennis game is 21 points.
- 8
In some games, a point awarded to the player whose cards add up to the largest sum.
adjective
- 1
colloquialWilling and able to participate.
- 2
That shows a tendency to continue to fight against another animal, despite being wounded, often severely.
- 3
Persistent, especially in senses similar to the above.
- 4
Injured, lame.
verb
- 1
To gamble.
- 2
To play card games, board games, or video games.
- 3
To exploit loopholes in a system or bureaucracy in a way which defeats or nullifies the spirit of the rules in effect, usually to obtain a result which otherwise would be unobtainable.
We'll bury them in paperwork, and game the system.
- 4
slangTo perform premeditated seduction strategy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Game in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | jeu , partie, match , jeu vidéo , gibier |
| German | Spiel , Partei, Match, Wettstreit , Computerspiel , bereit |
| Portuguese | jogo , partida , videojogo , caça , dentro , burlar |
| Spanish | juego , partido, partida , caza, venación , labia |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does game come from?
From Middle English game, gamen, gammen, from Old English gamen (“sport, joy, mirth, pastime, game, amusement, pleasure”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaman, from Proto-Germanic *gamaną (“amusement, pleasure, game", literally "participation, communion, people together”), from *ga- (collective prefix) + *mann- (“man”); or alternatively from *ga- + a root from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think, have in mind”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).