checkmate.
Word called out by the victor when making a move that wins the game.
Meaning & usage
Word called out by the victor when making a move that wins the game.
Said when one has placed a person in a losing situation with no escape.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Old French eschec matbor. Middle English chekmat English checkmate From Middle English chekmat, from Old French eschec mat, from Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta), from Classical Persian شاه مات (šāh māt, “the king [is] amazed”).
The conclusive victory in a game of chess that occurs when an opponent's king is threatened with unavoidable capture.
Any losing situation with no escape; utter defeat.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Old French eschec matbor. Middle English chekmat English checkmate From Middle English chekmat, from Old French eschec mat, from Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta), from Classical Persian شاه مات (šāh māt, “the king [is] amazed”).
To put the king of an opponent into checkmate.
My opponent checkmated me in four moves!
To place in a losing situation that has no escape.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Old French eschec matbor. Middle English chekmat English checkmate From Middle English chekmat, from Old French eschec mat, from Arabic شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta), from Classical Persian شاه مات (šāh māt, “the king [is] amazed”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.