stalemate
/ˈsteɪlmeɪt/
stalemate noun: the state in which the player to move is not in check but has no legal moves, resulting in a draw.
Noun
stalemate (countable and uncountable, plural stalemates)
- The state in which the player to move is not in check but has no legal moves, resulting in a draw.
- The game is drawn when the player to move has no legal move and his/her king is not in check. The game is said to end in ‘stalemate’. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the stalemate position was in accordance with Article 3 and Articles 4.2 – 4.7.2022, “2023 Laws of Chess”, in FIDE, archived from the original on 16 Mar 2025, page 10
- Any situation that has no obvious possible movement, but involves no personal loss.
- "Short of shooting us all in cold blood how's that going to help you, Mr. Carrados?" asked Larch, coming down to the commonplace of the situation. "It looks like stalemate to me and the sensible thing would be to make it a draw and all call off in good order. […]"1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London
- Indian military analysts said the situation was heading into a dangerous stalemate. Neither side wants to start a war. But neither side wants to back down either.2020 September 8, Jeffrey Gettleman, “Shots Fired Along India-China Border for First Time in Years”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 08 Sep 2020
- Any kind of match in which neither contestant laid claim to victory; a draw.
Verb
stalemate (third-person singular simple present stalemates, present participle stalemating, simple past and past participle stalemated)
- To bring about a state in which the player to move is not in check but has no legal moves.
- To bring about a stalemate, in which no advance in an argument is achieved.
- The North Korean nuclear issue, stalemated for the past three years, is now back in play again—not before time.2012 February 29, Aidan Foster-Carter, “North Korea: The denuclearisation dance resumes”, in BBC News, archived from the original on 24 Apr 2025
- But with the war also still largely stalemated, other theatres of conflict have become more important. In Russia’s case, that includes the secret domain.2024 March 18, Dan Sabbagh, “Volkov attack signals Russia’s return to cold war-era spying in Europe”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 27 Apr 2025
stalemate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and Telugu
stalemate in Hindi
- chess term
- ज़िच zic
stalemate in Tamil
- இக்கட்டு, இக்கட்டு நிலை, திக்குமுக்காடும் நிலை, முன்பின் போக இயலாத
stalemate in Bengali
- অচলাবস্থা, দাবার অমিমাংসিত অবস্থা
stalemate in Telugu
- blocked situation without personal loss
- ప్రతిష్టంభన pratiṣṭambhana
More languagesFewer languages
- stalemate in Malayalam
- പ്രതിസന്ധി, ഒരുസ്ഥലത്തുകൂടിയും പോകാൻ കഴിയാത്ത അവസ്ഥ, പൂർണ്ണസ്തംഭനം, സ്തംഭനാവസ്ഥ
- stalemate in Kannada
- ಬಿಕ್ಕಟ್ಟು
- stalemate in Arabic
- رَدْب radb, طَرِيق مَسْدُود ṭarīq masdūd, مَأْزِق maʔziq
- stalemate in Persian
- پات pât
- stalemate in Vietnamese
- hết nước đi
Examples of stalemate in a sentence
- But Levinson said in an interview that the stalemate uncovers a flaw in the US system.
- Much of the third period was a stalemate, with the Illini successfully clearing out the puck and playing prevent defense.
- Flesh occasionally feels stalemated, more laid up than at home.
Forms of stalemate
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | stalemates |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | stalemates |
| present participle | stalemating |
| past participle | stalemated |
| past | stalemated |
Origin of stalemate
From stale + mate.
Words formed from stalemate
Questions about stalemate
- What does stalemate mean?
- Stalemate means the state in which the player to move is not in check but has no legal moves, resulting in a draw.
- What is stalemate in Hindi?
- Stalemate in Hindi is ज़िच (zic). See Stalemate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is stalemate?
- Stalemate can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce stalemate?
- Stalemate is pronounced /ˈsteɪlmeɪt/.
- What is the plural of stalemate?
- The plural of stalemate is stalemates.
Words near stalemate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stalemate (page history and authors); stalemate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stalemate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stalemate (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); stalemate (Kannada 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-stalemate.wav.
Cite this entry: “stalemate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stalemate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.