endgame
/ˈɛnd.ɡeɪm/
endgame noun: the final stage of a game of chess, when there are few pieces left.
Noun
endgame (plural endgames)
- The final stage of a game of chess, when there are few pieces left.
- Rooks become much more important in the endgame.
- The real end game consists of a position where the method can be analytically demonstrated by which the slightly superior force can win.1884 April 12, The Academy, Horwitz, page 256
- The final stage of a game of bridge, when there are few cards left.
- You can't really use squeeze plays until the endgame.
- Bridge writing tends to concentrate on the end game.1952, Iain Macleod, Bridge Is an Easy Game, page 190
- The final stage of any game.
- Being stuck with two V tiles can make for an awkward Scrabble endgame.
- Lower levels often mean higher stakes, with characters lacking the inflated health pools and superhuman abilities of endgame builds.2025 February, Ted Litchfield, “Finding a Path”, in PC Gamer (US), number 392, page 10
- The final stage of an extended process or course of events, especially with the implication of the imminent realization of a masterful strategy or plan.
- What's his endgame, do you think?
- He had been a Commando during the war, had landed on Sword Beach and skirmished his way across the ravaged remains of Europe after D-Day before slogging out the endgame, attached to the 63rd Anti-Tank Regiment.2015, Kate Atkinson, A God in Ruins, →ISBN, page 138
- The gameplay available in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game for players who have completed all of the preset challenges.
- The thematic element of an advanced cryptic crossword puzzle, typically solved after completing the grid.
- Listener endgames have included […] shading every instance of the letters N - Z in the completed grid to reveal a 'normal' blocked crossword hidden in the one just solved2013 November 7, Alan Connor, Two Girls, One on Each Knee: The Puzzling, Playful World of the Crossword, Penguin UK, →ISBN
- What do you look for in an Advanced Cryptic crossword? […] Good balance of clues and endgame2020 January 31, Philip Fine, Amory H. Danek, Kathryn Friedlander, Ian Hocking, William Forde Thompson, Novel Approaches for Studying Creativity in Problem-Solving and Artistic Performance, Frontiers...
Adjective
endgame (not comparable)
- Having become canon by the end of the plot of a work of fiction or speculated to be intended to become such.
- TJLC’ers’ strong belief in Johnlock as endgame was intrinsically linked with their trust in the show’s creators, which enabled them to interpret the repeated denial of the subtext in Sherlock as part of the game.2017, Suzanne Frenk, "Telling The True Story: Queerbaiting, representation, and fan resistance in the BBC Sherlock fandom", thesis submitted to Tilburg University, page 50
- I think the fans and I were pretty aligned with who we wanted as endgame couples.2020, Marlene King, quoted in Sara K. Day & Summer Melody Pennell, "#PLLQueerTheory: Fans’ reactions to queer representation in Pretty Little Liars", The Journal of Fandom Studies, Volume 8, Number...
endgame meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Vietnamese
endgame in Tamil
- இறுதியாட்டம்
endgame in Urdu
- آخری معرکہ
endgame in Vietnamese
- end stage of a chess game
- cuối ván, tàn cuộc
Examples of endgame in a sentence
- In meme parlance, you may ask “Why?” but ah, an intellectual asks, “What’s the endgame?”2019 April 25, Heather Schwedel, “The Myth of the Endgame”, in Slate:
- It is time for the United States and its allies to get directly involved in shaping Ukraine’s strategic objectives, managing the conflict, and seeking a diplomatic endgame.2022 November 2, Charles A. Kupchan, “It’s Time to Bring Russia and Ukraine to the Negotiating Table”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
Forms of endgame
| plural | endgames |
|---|---|
| alternative form | end game |
| alternative form | end-game |
Origin of endgame
From end + game.
Questions about endgame
- What does endgame mean?
- Endgame means the final stage of a game of chess, when there are few pieces left.
- What is endgame in Tamil?
- Endgame in Tamil is இறுதியாட்டம். See Endgame meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use endgame in a sentence?
- In meme parlance, you may ask “Why?” but ah, an intellectual asks, “What’s the endgame?”
- What part of speech is endgame?
- Endgame can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce endgame?
- Endgame is pronounced /ˈɛnd.ɡeɪm/.
- What is the plural of endgame?
- The plural of endgame is endgames.
Words near endgame in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: endgame (page history and authors); endgame (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); endgame (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-endgame.wav.
Cite this entry: “endgame.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/endgame. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.