Word.ws English Dictionary

even the score

even the score verb: to seek or obtain revenge against someone.

Verb

even the score (third-person singular simple present evens the score, present participle evening the score, simple past and past participle evened the score)

  1. (idiomatic) To seek or obtain revenge against someone.
    • Near-synonyms: pay off old scores, pay back in someone's own coin
    • When the student pulled a prank on the principal, the principal evened the score by giving the student a suspension.

Synonyms of even the score

Forms of even the score

third-person singular presentevens the score
present participleevening the score
past participleevened the score
pastevened the score

Origin of even the score

By analogy to scorekeeping in sports.

Questions about even the score

What does even the score mean?
Even the score means to seek or obtain revenge against someone.
What part of speech is even the score?
Even the score is a verb.
What is the past tense of even the score?
The past tense of even the score is evened the score.

Words near even the score in the dictionary

  1. even odds
  2. even out
  3. even so
  4. even steven
  5. even still
  6. even the score
  7. even then
  8. even though
  9. even up
  10. even working
  11. even workings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: even the score (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: en-au-even the score.ogg.

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