Word.ws English Dictionary

one-armed bandit

Syllables: one-armed ban·dit/ˌwʌnɑːmd ˈbændɪt//ˌwʌnɑɹmd ˈbændɪt/

one-armed bandit noun: a gaming machine having a long arm-like handle at one side that a player pulls down to make reels spin; the player wins money or tokens when certain combinations of symbols line up on these reels.

one-armed bandit: a gaming machine having a long arm-like handle at one side that a player pulls down to make reels...
Image: Ronald Saunders from Warrington, UK, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

one-armed bandit (plural one-armed bandits)

  1. A gaming machine having a long arm-like handle at one side that a player pulls down to make reels spin; the player wins money or tokens when certain combinations of symbols line up on these reels.
  2. Synonym of penny-in-the-slot machine.

Synonyms of one-armed bandit

Forms of one-armed bandit

pluralone-armed bandits
alternative formone-arm bandit

Origin of one-armed bandit

From one-armed (“having only one arm”) + bandit (“one who robs others in a lawless area, especially as part of a group; one who cheats others”), referring to the fact that the machine is operated by a single handle, and “steals” money from losing players.

Questions about one-armed bandit

What does one-armed bandit mean?
One-armed bandit means a gaming machine having a long arm-like handle at one side that a player pulls down to make reels spin; the player wins money or tokens when certain combinations of symbols line up on these reels.
What part of speech is one-armed bandit?
One-armed bandit is a noun.
How do you pronounce one-armed bandit?
One-armed bandit is pronounced /ˌwʌnɑːmd ˈbændɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of one-armed bandit?
The plural of one-armed bandit is one-armed bandits.

Words near one-armed bandit in the dictionary

  1. one-arm lunchroom
  2. one-arm lunchrooms
  3. one-arm restaurant
  4. one-arm restaurants
  5. one-armed
  6. one-armed bandit
  7. one-armed bandits
  8. one-armed router
  9. one-armed routers
  10. one-bagger
  11. one-baggers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: one-armed bandit (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)-Vealhurl-one-armed bandit.wav, En-us-one-armed bandit.oga.

Cite this entry: “one-armed bandit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/one-armed_bandit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.