winnability

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noun

The quality of being winnable; the possibility that one can win at all.

Scrabble 19

Meanings

nounwinnability (uncountable)

alternative winability

  1. uncountableThe quality of being winnable; the possibility that one can win at all.

    The belief in winnability led to a Soviet Union intention to install missiles in Cuba.

    2012, Allen R. Wells, The Winter Count, page 99
    2 more examples

    Commonweal was troubled that Bush and other strategists were "toying" not only with survival after nuclear war but with the "winnability" of such a war.

    1993, Rodger Van Allen, Being Catholic: Commonweal from the Seventies to the Nineties, page 24

    Weak winnability says that every player has a chance to win. Strong winnability says that every player has a chance to win no matter which initial state the game starts from.

    2018, Tanja Mitrovic, Bing Xue, Xiaodong Li, AI 2018: Advances in Artificial Intelligence, page 47
  2. uncountableThe likelihood of winning (something).

    Seats were becoming vacant, but boundaries had been redrawn, making it hard to assess the winnability of the new constituencies.

    2014, John Campbell -, Roy Jenkins
    2 more examples

    Alinsky suggested that two closely related criteria, the winnability and the nondiviseness of an issue, should determine the focus of organizers' work.

    2012, Marie Weil, Michael S. Reisch, Mary L. Ohmer, The Handbook of Community Practice, page 251

    The perception that Gove had alienated the teaching profession to the extent that it was having an impact on the 'winnability' of marginal seats meant that he had become toxic to his party's election prospects; many who thought he should go admired his efforts to change schooling and also that his reforms were much needed and did not go far enought.

    2015, M. Finn -, The Gove Legacy: Education in Britain after the Coalition
  3. uncountableThe chance that (a political candidate) can win; electability.

    They awarded high marks for Williams' “winnability,” his communications, and his fiscal frameworks.

    2014, Alex Marland, Matthew Kerby, First among Unequals
    2 more examples

    This is despite the fact that women candidates have greater winnability compared to the male candidates, as is evident from Table 3.

    2000, Swarn Lata Sharma, Gender discrimination and human rights, page 201

    “Winnability is emphasized,” she said. “There's something to that. At the same time, if someone is completely against what the policies of the party are, in good conscience, you can't support someone like that.”

    2010, Kate Zernike, Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

winnability. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/winnability

MLA

“winnability.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/winnability. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “winnability,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/winnability.

Source: winnability on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.