win-win

English

WOTD – 9 March 2012

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌwɪnˈwɪn/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Adjective

win-win

1. (of a situation or outcome) That benefits both or all parties, or that has two distinct benefits. [from 1960s]

   The internship requirement for graduation has proved to be a win-win venture.

   • 1962, Joel David Singer, Deterrence, arms control, and disarmament:

     In zero-sum games, every win for one side is a loss for the other ; there can be no such thing as a "win-win" outcome

   • 1962, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations, Department of Defense appropriations for ...: Part 3:

     Has the shifting policy of win-win to win-hold-win and back to win-win had an impact on your munitions requirements determinations?

   • 1966, Justin Paul, International Marketing: Text And Cases, page 175:

     2. Win-Win The best partnership

   • 1974, Taylor McConnell, Group leadership for self-realization:

     A Win/Win Approach to Conflict / An integrative approach to conflict has such obvious merit for a group that it is worth spending some time looking at how it works

   • 2021 December 1, Barry Doe, “A new start as Fabrik to produce the NRT files”, in RAIL, number 945, page 63:

     At the time of writing, I have not seen the finished product, but I nevertheless think this is a win-win situation for Network Rail, operators, Fabrik and, of course, others.

Antonyms

• zero-sum

Translations

of a situation that benefits two parties

• Azerbaijani: nə şiş yansın, nə də kabab
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雙贏／双赢 (zh) (shuāngyíng)

• Danish: win-win-situation c
• Dutch: win-win
• Finnish: molempia hyödyttävä, win-win
• French: gagnant-gagnant (fr)
• German: zum beiderseitigen Vorteil, Doppelsieg (de), Win-Win
• Greek: όλοι κερδισμένοι (óloi kerdisménoi)
• Hungarian: mindkét fél számára előnyös/kedvező/nyerő, win-win
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: vinn-vinn

  Nynorsk: vinn-vinn

• Polish: wilk syty i owca cała (pl) (interjection)
• Portuguese: em que todos saem ganhando, em que todos ganham
• Russian: беспро́игрышный (ru) (bespróigryšnyj), взаимовы́годный (ru) (vzaimovýgodnyj)
• Spanish: todos ganan m

Noun

win-win

1. A situation that benefits both or all parties, or that has two distinct benefits

   Coordinate terms: lose-lose, zero-sum

   If you treated one person better than the other, there wouldn't be a win-win.

Usage notes

Strictly speaking an en-dash would be expected in this term (i.e. "win–win"), rather than a hyphen ("win-win"). Nevertheless, the latter is commonly encountered in practice, due to a combination of factors such as difficulty of typing an en-dash, unfamiliarity with en-dashes, and strong preference to conserve space (e.g. in newspapers).

Descendants

• → Danish: win-win-situation
• → Finnish: win-win
• → Italian: win-win
• Norwegian:

Bokmål: → Norwegian Bokmål: vinn-vinn

Nynorsk: → Norwegian Nynorsk: vinn-vinn

Translations

situation that benefits both parties

• Azerbaijani: nə şiş yansın, də nə kabab
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 雙贏局面／双赢局面 (shuāngyíng júmiàn)

• Finnish: yhteisvoitto, win-win-tilanne
• Hungarian: mindkét fél számára előnyös helyzet
• Polish: wilk syty i owca cała (pl) (interjection)
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Telugu: తునితగవు (tunitagavu)

See also

• game theory
• zero-sum game

References

• “win-win”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

• win-win game on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Finnish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English win-win.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwinˌwin/, [ˈwinˌwin]
• IPA^(key): /ˈʋinˌʋin/, [ˈʋinˌʋin]
• Rhymes: -in
• Syllabification^(key): win‧win

Phrase

win-win

1. (informal) win-win

Usage notes

This term only appears in uninflected form in Finnish, notably as modifier in win-win-tilanne (“win-win situation”). Some independent usage also exists, but often the term is explained in such context:

Tilanne on win-win - molemmat voittavat.

The situation is win-win - both parties win.

Derived terms

• win-win-tilanne

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English win-win.

Adjective

win-win (invariable)

1. win-win