Meaning & use
checkmate
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Meanings
nouncountable or uncountable
In chess, a position where a king is attacked and cannot move away or be defended, which ends the game with a win for the attacker.
Grammar: Uncountable when it names the state: the king is in checkmate. Countable when naming a kind: a back-rank checkmate.
Patterns
- in checkmate
- checkmate in two moves
She announced checkmate after moving her queen next to the king.
He avoided checkmate by sacrificing his rook.
The game ended in checkmate on the thirty-first move.
verbtransitive
To put an opponent's king into checkmate in a chess game.
Grammar: Takes the king or the player as object: checkmate the king.
Patterns
- checkmate someone
- checkmate a king
She checkmated her brother in only twelve moves.
I managed to checkmate the computer on the hardest level.
He studied openings so that he could checkmate quickly.
verbtransitivefigurative
To defeat someone completely and leave them without any way to respond or escape.
Grammar: Figurative: the lawyers checkmated the other side's plan.
Patterns
- checkmate someone
The new law checkmated the rival company's plans to expand.
The senator was checkmated by his own earlier statements.
A clever argument checkmated the critics at the debate.
Word forms
| plural | checkmates |
|---|---|
| third person singular | checkmates |
| past tense | checkmated |
| past participle | checkmated |
| -ing form | checkmating |
Common combinations
- deliver checkmate
- A rook delivered checkmate on the last row.
- avoid checkmate
- He avoided checkmate by moving his bishop.
- in checkmate
- After her last move, the king was in checkmate.
- checkmate in two moves
- She spotted a checkmate in two moves.
- back-rank checkmate
- A back-rank checkmate ended the match.
- checkmate an opponent
- The young player checkmated an opponent twice her age.
Synonyms and how they differ
- mate
- Mate is the short chess form of checkmate and is used among players, but it is less clear to a general audience.
- defeat
- Defeat is general for any loss, whereas checkmate suggests a final, unanswerable defeat.
- outmaneuver
- Outmaneuver suggests winning by clever planning but not necessarily leaving no escape, as checkmate does.
- thwart
- Thwart means to block a plan but does not imply a total defeat, unlike checkmate.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: checkmate or stalemate?
checkmate vs stalemate
Stalemate is a draw in chess where the player has no legal move but is not in check. In everyday English it means a deadlock.
Practice
In chess, what is the difference between check and checkmate?
Choose one answer.
Check only threatens the king, and the player can respond. Checkmate means there is no response, so the game ends. The draw and equivalence options are wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “checkmate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.