In game theory: designating a game in which whatever is gained by one side is lost by the other, so that the net change is always zero. More generally: designating any situation in which an advantage to one participant necessarily leads to a disadvantage to one or more of the others. Esp. in zero-sum game.
1944
An important viewpoint in classifying games is this: Is the sum of all payments received by all players (at the end of the game) always zero; or is this not the case?.. We shall call games of the first mentioned type zero-sum games.
J. Von Neumann & O. Morgenstern, Theory of Games ii. 47
1957
This is what may be called the ‘zero-sum’ concept; power, that is to say, is power over others. The power A has in a system is necessarily and by definition at the expense of B.
World Politicsvol. 10 139
1966
Perhaps the contestants in most important games nowadays (from labour disputes..to international diplomacy) too readily regard their games as zero-sum.
S. Beer, Decision & Control x. 210
1980
In Europe [in the 1930s] class conflict was seen as a zero-sum game in which one group could only benefit at the expense of another.
Times Literary Supplement 26 September 1072/2
2002
Poker, in its most basic form, is a zero-sum game. Without a third party like a house or casino that charges a fee to play in the game, the total sum of money at the table remains constant.
Of, relating to, or characteristic of zero-sum games or situations (see sense 1).
1965
Riker's..book considers some phenomena, like military alliances, for which his zero-sum assumption is most inappropriate.
M. Olson, Logic of Collective Action i. 40
1971
C. Wright Mills..used a zero-sum conception of power (i.e., the more one person had the less was available to others).
Times Literary Supplement 22 October 1335/3
1983
Conditioned by the patriarchal, zero-sum notion of power, we are often tempted to view the skills and good fortunes of others in a competitive fashion.
J. Macy, Despair & Personal Power ii. 32
2007
We want a 21st Century partnership with Russia, but at times, Russia seems to think and act in the zero-sum terms of another era.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.
Vowels
iːfleece
ihappy
ɪkit
ɛdress
atrap, bath
ɑːstart, palm, bath
ɒlot
ɔːthought, force
ʌstrut
ʊfoot
uːgoose
əletter
əːnurse
ɪənear
ɛːsquare
ʊəcure
eɪface
ʌɪpride
aʊmouth
əʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ãgratin
ɒ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.
Vowels
ifleece, happy
ɪkit
ɛdress
ætrap, bath
ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
ɑrstart
ɔcloth, thought
ɔrnorth, force
ʊfoot
ugoose
əstrut, comma
ərnurse, letter
ɪ(ə)rnear
ɛ(ə)rsquare
ʊ(ə)rcure
eɪface
aɪpride
aʊmouth
oʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ɑ̃gratin
æ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.
Consonants
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values
gguy
jjay
yyore
chchore
khloch
shshore
ththaw
dhthee
zhbeige
Vowels
atrap
ahpalm
airsquare
arstart
arrcarry (British only)
awthought
ayface
a(ng)gratin
edress
eefleece
eerdeer
errmerry
ikit
ighpride
irrmirror
olot (British only)
ohgoat
oogoose
oorcure
orforce
orrsorry (British only)
owmouth
oyvoice
o(ng)salon
ustrut
uhletter
urnurse
urrhurry
uufoot
Frequency
zero-sum typically occurs about 0.4 times per million words in modern written English.
zero-sum is in frequency band 4, which contains words occurring between 0.1 and 1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.
Frequency of zero-sum, adj., 1940–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.
The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.
For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.
Decade
Frequency per million words
1940
0.2
1950
0.23
1960
0.27
1970
0.34
1980
0.41
1990
0.46
2000
0.49
2010
0.52
Frequency of zero-sum, adj., 2017–2024
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.
Period
Frequency per million words
2017
0.46
2018
0.45
2019
0.45
2020
0.46
2021
0.45
2022
0.45
2023
0.45
2024
0.45
Originally published as part of the entry for zero, n. & adj.