tiebreaker

noun

tie·​break·​er ˈtī-ˌbrā-kər 

plural tiebreakers

1

: an additional contest or period of play used to select a winner when a competition or part of a competition ends in a tie

… after a 90-minute rain delay in the third set, won a riveting tiebreaker.

—L. Jon Wertheim

called also tiebreak

2

: a person whose vote breaks a tie

The vice president served as a tiebreaker in the last senate vote.

3

: a final vote, point, or score that determines the winner in a contest

She cast the tiebreaker.

Examples of tiebreaker in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Second Team Point guard: Ty Lawson (2009-15) Two Second-Team spots required a tiebreaker, including this one. —Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 11 Aug. 2025

Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Sparks will have major tiebreaker implications as the SoCal team is a half-game back of the Valkyries. —Nathan Canilao, Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2025

Along with the new-look tiebreaker procedure, MLB also used last night’s scrimmage as a national test run for an automatic balls-and-strikes (ABS) challenge system that was in use during spring training. —Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 16 July 2025

If there is a tie, the longest individual home run from that round serves as the tiebreaker. —Giovanni Malloy, Forbes.com, 14 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1904, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Rhymes for tiebreaker

• blackacre
• caretaker
• clockmaker
• dressmaker
• filmmaker
• homemaker
• icebreaker
• lawmaker
• matchmaker
• pacemaker
• partaker
• peacemaker