Word.ws English Dictionary

win

/ˈwɪn/

win verb: to conquer, defeat. Also the alternative form of wynn.

Verb (1)

win (third-person singular simple present wins, present participle winning, simple past won or (obsolete) wan, past participle won)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To conquer, defeat.
    • For and we doo bataille we two wyl fyghte with one knyȝt at ones
      and therfore yf ye wille fyghte ſoo we wille be redy at what houre ye wille aſſigne
      And yf ye wynne vs in bataille the lady ſhal haue her landes ageyne
      ye ſay wel ſayd ſir Vwayne
      therfor make yow redy ſo that ye be here to morne in...1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book IV
    • For the glory, the power to win the Black Lord, I will search for the Emerald Sword.1998, Rhapsody, Emerald Sword
  2. (intransitive, transitive) To reach some destination or object, despite difficulty or toil (now usually intransitive, with preposition or locative adverb).
    • I well may gang out, love, but I'll never win home.c. 17th century, unknown author, The Baron of Brackley (traditional folk song)
    • No sooner did I get my freedom than my footsteps began to be dogged by the spies of the Iron Heel. It was necessary that they should be thrown off the track, and that I should win to California.1908, Jack London, The Iron Heel
  3. (transitive) To triumph or achieve victory in (a game, a war, etc.).
  4. (transitive) To gain (a prize) by succeeding in competition or contest.
    • to win the jackpot in a lottery; to win a bottle of wine in a raffle
  5. (transitive) To obtain (someone) by wooing; to make an ally or friend of (frequently with over).
    • Thy virtue won me; with virtue preserve me.a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...
    • She is a woman; therefore to be won.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  6. (intransitive) To achieve victory.
    • Who would win in a fight between an octopus and a dolphin?
    • Nah, I'd win.
  7. (intransitive) To have power, coercion or control.
    • Ever since the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Bostonians now run as "One Boston." The terrorists did not win.
  8. (transitive) To obtain (something desired).
    • The company hopes to win an order from the government worth over 5 million dollars.
  9. (transitive) To cause a victory for someone.
    • The success of the economic policies should win Mr. Smith the next elections.
    • The policy success should win the elections for Mr. Smith.
  10. (transitive) To extract (ore, coal, etc.).
  11. (informal, transitive) To defeat or surpass someone or something.
  12. (informal, intransitive) To take priority.
    • If the local filters conflict with the global filters, the global filters always win.

Noun (1)

win (plural wins)

  1. An individual victory.
    • Our first win of the season put us in high spirits.
    • Giovani dos Santos smashed home a third five minutes later to wrap up the win.2011 September 29, Jon Smith, “Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers”, in BBC Sport
    Antonyms:
    loss
  2. (slang) A feat carried out successfully; a victorious achievement.
    Antonyms:
    fail
  3. (obsolete) Gain; profit; income.
  4. (obsolete) Wealth; goods owned.

Noun (2)

win

  1. (Scotland) Pleasure; joy; delight.

Verb (2)

win

  1. (Scotland, transitive) To dry by exposure to the wind.

Noun (3) capitalized: Win

Win (plural Wins)

  1. (colloquial) A Winchester firearm.
    • Pre-64 Win has a heritage that can't be beat. For me, it's Rems for prarie dogs and paper, Wins (or 1917 Enfields) for stuff that wants to stomp you into a greasy spot on the tundra.1997 December 23, Marcus [username], “Re: New Pre '64 or 700 action?”, in rec.guns (Usenet)

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Win

Win

  1. Windows, an operating system family developed by Microsoft.
  2. (abbreviation, broadly, clipping) Clipping of Windows key.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Win

Win

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Winifred.

Proper noun (3) capitalized: Win

Win

  1. A diminutive of the male given name Winston.
    • Winston Piper didn't look right to her in what she thought of as Flaherty's office. […] “My friends call me Win,” he said. “No need for formality.” ¶ “Sure, Win.” He's hinting.1994, Robert B. Parker, All Our Yesterdays, Dell Publishing, →ISBN, page 449

Proper noun (4) capitalized: Win

Win (plural Wins)

  1. A surname.

Phrase capitalized: WIN

WIN

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of whip inflation now: a 1974 US political slogan.

Also used as

win is also the alternative form of wynn.

win meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

win in Hindi

transitive: achieve victory in
जीतना jītnā

win in Tamil

transitive: achieve victory in
ஜெயி jeyi, வெற்றி கொள் veṟṟi koḷ, வெல் vel
to gain a prize
வெல் vel
individual victory
வெற்றி veṟṟi
feat, achievement
சாதனை cātaṉai

win in Marathi

transitive: achieve victory in
जिंकणे jiṅkṇe
individual victory
विजय vijay

win in Urdu

transitive: achieve victory in
جیتنا jītnā
More languagesFewer languages
win in Bengali
জেতা jeta, জিত jito
win in Telugu
గెలుచు gelucu, గెలుపొందు gelupondu, గెలుచుకొను gelucukonu, గెలుపు gelupu
win in Malayalam
ജയിക്കുക, ജയിക്കാൻ
win in Kannada
ಗೆಲ್ಲಲು
win in Gujarati
જીતવા
win in Odia
ଜିତିବା
win in Sanskrit
जयति jayati
win in Assamese
জিকা zika
win in Nepali
जित्नु jitnu, जीत jīt
win in Pashto
ګټل gaṭᶕl
win in Arabic
رَبِحَ rabiḥa, كَسَبَ kasaba, فَازَ fāza
win in Malay
menangi, menang
win in Indonesian
menang
win in Persian
بردن bordan, پیروز شدن piruz šodan
win in Thai
ชนะ chá-ná, เอาชนะ ao-chá-ná, ถูกรางวัล, ได้ dâai
win in Vietnamese
thắng, chiến thắng, thắng lợi
win in Myanmar
အောင်မြင် aungmrang, အောင် aung, နိုင် nuing
Dzongkha
རྒྱལ rgyal

Examples of win in a sentence

  • I'm running a book on who is going to win the race.
  • That horse is twenty-to-one on, so you need to stake twenty pounds just to win one pound.
  • Three contestants will win awards, but the last prize is just a book voucher.

All 40 example sentences with win

Synonyms of win

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of win

Forms of win

Verb
third-person singular presentwins
present participlewinning
pastwon
past participlewon
past (obsolete)wan
second-person singular present (archaic)winnest
second-person singular past (archaic)wonnest
third-person singular present (archaic)winneth
Noun
pluralwins
pluralWins
Proper noun
pluralWins

Past tense of win: won

Plural of win: wins

Origin of win

From Middle English winnen, from Old English winnan (“to labour, swink, toil,”) (compare Old English ġewinnan (“conquer, obtain, gain; endure, bear, suffer; be ill”)), from Proto-West Germanic *winnan, from Proto-Germanic *winnaną (“to swink, labour, win, gain, fight”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, wish, desire, love”). Cognates Cognate with North Frisian wan, wane, wen, wine, wune (“to win”), Saterland Frisian and West Frisian winne (“to win”), Cimbrian gabènnan (“to win”), Dutch and Low German winnen (“to win”), German gewinnen (“to win”), Luxembourgish gewannen (“to win”), Danish vinde (“to win”), Faroese and Icelandic vinna (“to win”), Norwegian Bokmål vinne (“to win”), Norwegian Nynorsk vinna, vinne (“to win”), Swedish vinna (“to win”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌰𐌽 (winnan, “to suffer”); also Latin venus (“beauty, charm, elegance, grace; beloved, love”), Albanian vuaj, vuj (“to suffer; to endure”), Sanskrit वनोति (vanoti, “to desire, like, love, wish; to gain, procure; to win; to prepare; to hurt, injure”).

From Middle English winn, winne, from Old English winn (“toil, labor, trouble, hardship; profit, gain; conflict, strife, war”), from Proto-Germanic *winną (“labour, struggle, fight”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, desire, wish, love”). Cognate with German Gewinn (“profit, gain”), Dutch gewin (“profit, gain”).

From Middle English wynne, winne, wunne, from Old English wynn (“joy, rapture, pleasure, delight, gladness”), from Proto-West Germanic *wunnju, from Proto-Germanic *wunjō (“joy, delight, pleasure, lust”), from Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive, wish, desire, love”). Cognate with German Wonne (“bliss, joy, delight”), archaic Dutch wonne (“joy”), Danish ynde (“grace”), Icelandic yndi (“delight”).

Words formed from win

Phrases with win

Words that rhyme with win

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about win

What does win mean?
Win means to conquer, defeat.
What is win in Hindi?
Win in Hindi is जीतना (jītnā). See Win meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is win?
Win can be a verb, a noun, a proper noun or a phrase.
How do you pronounce win?
Win is pronounced /ˈwɪn/.
What is the past tense of win?
The past tense of win is won.

Words near win in the dictionary

  1. WIMs
  2. Wimsatt
  3. Wimsatts
  4. Wimshurst machine
  5. Wimshurst machines
  6. win
  7. win around
  8. win back
  9. win big
  10. win by a nose
  11. win liao lor

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: win (page history and authors); Win (page history and authors); WIN (page history and authors); win (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); win (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); win (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); win (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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-us-win.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Back ache-win.wav.

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