How to Use zero-sum in a Sentence

zero-sum

adjective

• We’ve all been sold a con: that progress is a zero-sum game.
  — Reshma Saujani, Time, 19 May 2025
• In the end, the flow of water and sediment is a zero-sum game.
  — Daniel A. Gross, The New Yorker, 5 Nov. 2023
• To those who wrongly see trade as a zero-sum game, the result was a clear win for the U.S.
  — The Editors, National Review, 29 July 2025
• This isn’t a zero-sum game, where one side wins and the other loses.
  — Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times, 10 Dec. 2024
• In the zero-sum world of the Stanley Cup playoffs, there is no in between.
  — Mark Lazerus, New York Times, 16 May 2025
• In this view, translation is at best a tug of war, at worst a zero-sum game.
  — Max Norman, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2024
• One is a zero-sum game; the other offers the chance for both parties to prosper.
  — Sarah Keohane Williamson, Forbes.com, 16 May 2025
• That’s surrender — to the idea that this is a zero-sum war where one side must be erased for the other to survive.
  — Hen Mazzig, Sun Sentinel, 6 Feb. 2025
• The zero-sum game of it all seems to be a part of the music industry where there’s this rapaciousness to it.
  — Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 6 Aug. 2024
• For his own reasons, Netanyahu has chosen to present the hostage dilemma as a zero-sum game.
  — Assaf Orion, Foreign Affairs, 3 June 2025
• Science isn’t a winner-take-all, zero-sum game of flag football.
  — Megha Satyanarayana, Scientific American, 25 Apr. 2025
• Happiness in a baseball offseason is a zero-sum game, and the Dodgers keep adding.
  — Fabian Ardaya, The Athletic, 23 Jan. 2025
• People who want to move, and can’t, grow more cynical, more pessimistic, more inclined to see the world as zero-sum.
  — Rachel Cohen, Vox, 18 Feb. 2025
• Only in the last few decades have the two become locked in a zero-sum relationship, where a gain for one side is seen as a loss for the other.
  — Robert J. Spitzer, Time, 6 June 2023
• In an extremely zero-sum economy, that might be the end state.
  — Wilson Chapman, IndieWire, 17 Sep. 2024
• But when the election wasn't a zero-sum game, most of us took quite different paths that were much more voter-friendly.
  — Andrew Yang, MSNBC Newsweek, 25 June 2025
• Thankfully, this isn't a zero-sum game—the manual-transmission M3 didn't need to die so that the XM could live.
  — Ezra Dyer, Car and Driver, 30 June 2023
• If the value exchange breaks down, the workplace can turn into a place where a zero-sum game is played—and resentment brews.
  — Jalie Cohen, Forbes.com, 5 Aug. 2025
• And adopting a Cold War–style, zero-sum framework, in which the rest of the world is forced to choose sides, only reinforces this dynamic.
  — Blaise Malley, The New Republic, 5 Oct. 2023
• The notion of good coming from bad is a romantic one, but the reality isn’t a zero-sum game.
  — Elise Hannum, The Atlantic, 20 June 2024
• China and the United States both see AI development as a zero-sum game.
  — Ian Bremmer and Mustafa Suleyman, Foreign Affairs, 16 Aug. 2023
• In the absolute, this becomes a zero-sum game: automate one job, put one worker out of work, maybe more.
  — Eli Amdur, Forbes, 5 Oct. 2024
• Aim for a zero-sum spending plan, where every dollar earned is assigned a role, whether that is savings, bills, or wants.
  — Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 23 May 2024
• In a zero-sum game, parity is the enemy of playoff berths and top-25 rankings.
  — Jon Wilner | , oregonlive, 3 Sep. 2023
• But in most cases, the competition seems more zero-sum.
  — Eshe Nelson, New York Times, 7 Dec. 2023
• This is not a zero-sum equation—governments and the Church are not competitors in caring for those in need, but partners.
  — Eric Ha, TIME, 12 Feb. 2025
• This is not a zero-sum game if Israel phases its objectives.
  — Assaf Orion, Foreign Affairs, 3 June 2025
• The intransigence of such zero-sum disputes is a reminder of why win-win fantasies are so attractive in the first place.
  — Jennifer Szalai, New York Times, 8 June 2024
• The Israelis are still stuck in a zero-sum game, while many Arab states have moved toward accommodation.
  — David Ignatius, Washington Post, 31 July 2024
• The idea that the economy is rigged and zero-sum is leading to a rise in populism in both parties.
  — Allison Schrager, Twin Cities, 30 Nov. 2025