checkers

noun

check·​ers ˈche-kərz 

plural in form but singular in construction

: a checkerboard game for 2 players each with 12 pieces

Examples of checkers in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Members the Territorial Defense Forces who guard a large checkpoint briefly played a game of checkers with Molotov cocktails, as seen on the eastern outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 5. —Time, 23 Nov. 2022

Nothing beats sitting on the porch on a crisp autumn day while playing a round of checkers with a loved one or little one. —Amy Mitchell, Country Living, 3 Oct. 2022

This supersized, two-sided game board features checkers on one side and two versions of Tic Tac Toe on the other. —Kathleen Willcox, Popular Mechanics, 21 May 2022

The patient could play checkers but ignored the pieces on the left side of the board. —Carl Zimmer, Discover Magazine, 4 Dec. 2014

Word History

Etymology

plural of checker entry 1

Note: Plurality here presumably alludes to the multiple number of playing pieces, as with other games denoted by plural nouns, though the noun pluralized is not itself a playing piece. As a name for the game checkers is an Americanism, apparently first attested in the journal of the Massachusetts magistrate Samuel Sewall (1652-1730). The usual British correspondent is draughts, but Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary recorded checkers in the northern English counties of Northumberland and Durham.

First Known Use

1712, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing checkers

• Chinese checkers

Rhymes for checkers

• chequers
• deckers
• trekkers
• wreckers
• woodpeckers

Kids Definition

checkers

noun

check·​ers ˈchek-ərz 

: a game played on a checkerboard by two persons each having 12 pieces