Meaning & use
pinochle
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
A card game for two to four players, played with a special deck and scored by counting certain card combinations.
Grammar: Used without 'a' or a plural: play pinochle, not play a pinochle.
Patterns
- play pinochle
- a game of pinochle
My grandparents taught me how to play pinochle on rainy afternoons.
They sat around the kitchen table playing pinochle until midnight.
Pinochle uses two copies of each card from nine up to the ace.
nouncountabletechnical
A combination in this game, especially a queen of spades paired with a jack of diamonds, worth extra points.
Grammar: Countable in this technical sense: a pinochle, two pinochles.
Patterns
- declare a pinochle
- hold a pinochle
She declared a pinochle and gained forty points.
If you hold a pinochle, say so before the first trick.
Common combinations
- play pinochle
- The four of us play pinochle every Friday night.
- a game of pinochle
- We finished a game of pinochle just before dinner.
- a pinochle deck
- A pinochle deck has forty-eight cards instead of fifty-two.
- pinochle partner
- He is my usual pinochle partner at the club.
Commonly confused: pinochle or pinnacle? pinochle or bicycle?
pinochle vs pinnacle
Pinnacle is a high pointed peak or the highest point of success; pinochle is only the card game. They sound similar but are unrelated.
pinochle vs bicycle
Bicycle is a well-known brand of playing cards; pinochle is a game, and it needs a special deck rather than a standard one.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'pinochle' correctly?
Choose one answer.
'Pinochle' is a card game, so 'play pinochle' fits. Option 1 confuses it with 'pinnacle' (a peak), option 2 is wrong because pinochle needs its own forty-eight-card deck, and option 4 confuses it with 'bicycle'.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pinochle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.