Standard Lemma guide

gamesmanship

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

CMU ARPABET: G EY1 M Z M AH0 N SH IH2 P Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

noun

Meaning 1

The use of legal but unsporting tactics to gain an advantage over one’s opponent.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

They kept the other team waiting on the field until the last possible moment – that was a clear case of gamesmanship.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

noun

Meaning 2

the use of dubious (although not technically illegal) methods to win a game

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: unfairness, inequity

History

Etymology

From game + -s- + -manship or gamesman + -ship.

Word forms

Inflections and variants

gamesmanships — plural

Word family

Derived and related words

Derived: namesmanship

Related: game, gamesman, one-upmanship, brinksmanship

Semantic map

Other relationships

Hypernyms: unfairness, inequity

Sources

Where this information comes from

Wiktionary data was expanded into structured fields by Wiktextract. Matching Princeton WordNet definitions and semantic relationships, plus CMUdict ARPABET pronunciations, are merged into this same canonical word page.

Wiktionary text is credited to English Wiktionary contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The source entry and revision history URL, legal text, and the complete attribution and reuse instructions are collected on the site-wide Sources, credits & licenses page.

Changes made: Wiktionary markup was removed and matching senses were grouped; WordNet and CMUdict evidence was merged into the canonical word page. Source quotations with separate cited works are not republished.

The page is served entirely from a local, versioned copy; opening it makes no upstream request or external navigation.

Real reading context

Examples

Meaning relationships

Meaning relationships

gamesmanship in complete knowledge articles