checkmate

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
22
Words With Friends
24
Letters
9
Pronunciation
/ˈt͡ʃɛkmeɪt/

Definition of checkmate

6 senses · 3 parts of speech · etymology included

intj

  1. Word called out by the victor when making a move that wins the game.
See all 6 definitions

intj

  1. Word called out by the victor when making a move that wins the game.
  2. (broadly)Said when one has placed a person in a losing situation with no escape.

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)The conclusive victory in a game of chess that occurs when an opponent's king is threatened with unavoidable capture.
    “This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing the checkmate position was in accordance with Article 3 and Articles 4.2 – 4.7.”
  2. (broadly, countable, figuratively, uncountable)Any losing situation with no escape; utter defeat.

verb

  1. (transitive)To put the king of an opponent into checkmate.
    “My opponent checkmated me in four moves!”
    “The game is won by the player who has checkmated his/her opponent’s king.”
  2. (broadly, transitive)To place in a losing situation that has no escape.
    “Where is it? What does SCP-3125 look like? Its motivation, its origins, its modus operandi— how much of that can be known? Does it have to be known, to solve the problem? Does it matter how intelligent the intelligence is, once it's inside the box, once it's checkmated?”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

Etymology

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”).

Words you can make from checkmate

125 playable · top: CHECK (16 pts)

Best play check 16 points

7-letter words

1 word

6-letter words

4 words

5-letter words

15 words

4-letter words

57 words

3-letter words

32 words

2-letter words

15 words

Hooks

2 extensions · 2 back

A single letter you can add to checkmate to make another valid word.

Find your best play with checkmate

See every word you can make from a set of letters that includes checkmate, or browse word lists you can mine for high-scoring plays.