"minimax" meaning in English

See minimax in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈmɪn.ɪˌmæks/, /-.əˌ-/ Forms: minimaxes [plural], minmax [alternative]
Etymology: Blend of mini(mum) + max(imum). Etymology templates: {{blend|en|minimum|maximum|alt1=mini(mum)|alt2=max(imum)}} Blend of mini(mum) + max(imum) Head templates: {{en-noun}} minimax (plural minimaxes)
  1. (decision theory, game theory) A decision rule used for minimizing the maximum possible loss, or maximizing the minimum gain. Derived forms: Courant minimax principle
    Sense id: en-minimax-en-noun-oBYu8bO5 Categories (other): Decision theory, Game theory, English entries with incorrect language header, English oxymorons, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 60 40 Disambiguation of English oxymorons: 63 37 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 61 39 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 66 34 Topics: computing, engineering, game-theory, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Verb

IPA: /ˈmɪn.ɪˌmæks/, /-.əˌ-/ Forms: minimaxes [present, singular, third-person], minimaxing [participle, present], minimaxed [participle, past], minimaxed [past], min-max [alternative]
Etymology: Blend of mini(mum) + max(imum). Etymology templates: {{blend|en|minimum|maximum|alt1=mini(mum)|alt2=max(imum)}} Blend of mini(mum) + max(imum) Head templates: {{en-verb}} minimax (third-person singular simple present minimaxes, present participle minimaxing, simple past and past participle minimaxed)
  1. To find the optimum play, or decision, to achieve minimizing the maximum loss. Related terms: maximin
    Sense id: en-minimax-en-verb-00KRxyMj Categories (other): English blends Disambiguation of English blends: 44 56

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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      "expansion": "Blend of mini(mum) + max(imum)",
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  "etymology_text": "Blend of mini(mum) + max(imum).",
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        "(decision theory, game theory) A decision rule used for minimizing the maximum possible loss, or maximizing the minimum gain."
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Download raw JSONL data for minimax meaning in English (2.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (92124b4 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.