"zero-sum" meaning in English

See zero-sum in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Adjective

Head templates: {{en-adj|-}} zero-sum (not comparable)
  1. (game theory) Of a system, where all gains are offset by exactly equal losses. Tags: not-comparable Derived forms: zero-sum game Related terms: zero-based Coordinate_terms: positive-sum, win-win, ;, negative-sum
    Sense id: en-zero-sum-en-adj-RYswlJTQ Categories (other): Game theory, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Zero Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 87 13 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 92 8 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 94 6 Disambiguation of Zero: 87 13 Topics: computing, engineering, game-theory, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences

Noun

Forms: zero-sums [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} zero-sum (plural zero-sums)
  1. Ellipsis of zero-sum game, zero-sum situation, etc. Tags: abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis Alternative form of: zero-sum game, zero-sum situation, etc Coordinate_terms: win-win, lose-lose
    Sense id: en-zero-sum-en-noun-q6bXC8xq
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-04-01 using wiktextract (7de0cf9 and 9452535). 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.