Word.ws English Dictionary

for the win

for the win prepositional phrase: being the best; being great, awesome, amazing or spectacular; sure to succeed (used as a term of approval, similar to long live).

Prepositional phrase

  1. (Internet, dated) Being the best; being great, awesome, amazing or spectacular; sure to succeed (used as a term of approval, similar to long live)
    • Blink-182 for the win!
    • Nerds for the win!

Forms of for the win

alternative initialismFTW
alternative initialismftw
alternative initialism4tw

Origin of for the win

From earlier use by radio and television sports announcers, describing a play that results in a win, bringing the game to a conclusion.

Questions about for the win

What does for the win mean?
For the win means being the best; being great, awesome, amazing or spectacular; sure to succeed (used as a term of approval, similar to long live).
What part of speech is for the win?
For the win is a prepositional phrase.

Words near for the win in the dictionary

  1. for the sake of
  2. for the taking
  3. for the time
  4. for the time being
  5. for the want of
  6. for the win
  7. for the world
  8. for the worse
  9. for this once
  10. for thy
  11. for time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: for the win (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-for the win.ogg.

Cite this entry: “for the win.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/for_the_win. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.