zero-sum game

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

zero-sum game (plural zero-sum games)

1. (game theory) A game (or a similar political or economic system) in which the gains of some players must equal the losses of others.

   Coordinate terms: win-win, lose-lose

   • 2011 July 18, John Cassidy, “Mastering the Machine”, in The New Yorker‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Dalio is right, but somewhat self-serving. If hedge-fund managers are playing a zero-sum game, what is their social utility? […] Can it really be in America’s interest to have so much of its young talent playing a zero-sum game?

   • 2013, Andrew M. Colman, Game Theory and its Applications: In the Social and Biological Sciences‎^[2], Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 55:

     A zero-sum game, as its name suggests, is one in which, whatever the outcome, the payoffs to the players add up to zero, which means that what one player gains, the other(s) must necessarily lose.

   • 2014, “The Writing's On the Wall”, in Hungry Ghosts, performed by OK Go:

     Listen, I know it's been hard / You know it’s no different for me / We’re less than a zero-sum game now / And baby, we both know that's not how it's supposed to be

   • 2022 August 16, Adam Morton, “De-extinction: scientists are planning the multimillion-dollar resurrection of the Tasmanian tiger”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     He said turning a lab-created animal into a wild population would be an “enormous challenge”, but the financial support for de-extinction research should not be seen as a “zero sum game”.

   • 2024 November 21, Deborah Cole, “Merkel: I mistook Trump for ‘someone completely normal’”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     On the flight home after their first talks, a deflated Merkel concluded that Trump “looked at everything like the real estate developer he was before he entered politics” – as a zero-sum game.

Translations

system in which one player's winnings must equal losses of others

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 零和博弈 (zh) (línghé bóyì), 零和遊戲 / 零和游戏 (línghé yóuxì)

• Danish: nulsumsspil n
• Dutch: nulsomspel n
• Finnish: nollasummapeli (fi)
• French: jeu à somme nulle (fr) m
• German: Nullsummenspiel (de) n
• Hebrew: משחק סכום אפס m (miskhak skhum 'efes)
• Icelandic: núllsummuleikur m
• Italian: gioco a somma zero m
• Kazakh: антагонистік ойын (antagonistık oiyn), тайталаспа ойын (taitalaspa oiyn), тайталастық ойын (taitalastyq oiyn)
• Persian: بازی مجموع-صفر (bâzi-ye majmu'-sefr)
• Portuguese: jogo de soma zero m
• Russian: антагонистическая игра (antagonističeskaja igra)
• Spanish: juego de suma cero m
• Swedish: nollsummespel (sv)
• Vietnamese: trò chơi có tổng bằng không

Further reading

• zero-sum game on Wikipedia.Wikipedia