Meaning & use
winner-take-all contest
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Meanings
nouncountable
A competition in which the single winner receives the whole prize or all the power, and everyone else gets nothing.
Grammar: Countable: say 'a winner-take-all contest' or 'winner-take-all contests'.
Patterns
- a winner-take-all contest for something
- hold/enter a winner-take-all contest
The final is a winner-take-all contest, so second place earns no prize money at all.
In a winner-take-all contest, the losing candidates usually gain no seats in the assembly.
The startup market can feel like a winner-take-all contest, with one company dominating the field.
nounsingularfigurative
A system or situation where one side gains everything and the other side gains nothing, especially in elections.
Grammar: Often used before another noun, as in 'a winner-take-all system'.
Patterns
- a winner-take-all system
- winner-take-all politics
Critics say the winner-take-all system leaves many voters feeling ignored.
The election turned into a winner-take-all situation, with no sharing of power afterward.
Word forms
| plural | winner-take-all contests |
|---|
Common combinations
- a winner-take-all contest
- The chess final was a winner-take-all contest with a huge cash prize.
- winner-take-all system
- Under a winner-take-all system, the top candidate takes the only seat.
- winner-take-all market
- Smartphone apps became a winner-take-all market dominated by a few firms.
- winner-take-all election
- A winner-take-all election can produce a big gap between votes and seats.
Synonyms and how they differ
- all-or-nothing contest
- Very close in meaning, but it stresses total success or total failure rather than the single winner taking the prize.
- knockout competition
- Focuses on losers being eliminated round by round, not necessarily on the winner getting everything.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: winner-take-all contest or zero-sum game?
winner-take-all contest vs zero-sum game
A zero-sum game is any situation where one person's gain equals another's loss; a winner-take-all contest is about one winner taking the whole prize.
Practice
Which sentence uses 'winner-take-all contest' correctly?
Choose one answer.
The phrase means one winner takes everything, so the champion collecting the whole prize fits. Option 0 fails because sharing equally is the opposite of winner-take-all.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “winner-take-all contest”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.