variants or tick-tack-toe
: a game in which two players alternately put Xs and Os in compartments of a figure formed by two vertical lines crossing two horizontal lines and each tries to get a row of three Xs or three Os before the opponent does

Examples of tic-tac-toe in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Cunningham, however, is playing chess against a Knicks defense playing tic-tac-toe. Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 8 Dec. 2024 One looks like a menacing version of tic-tac-toe, while another appears to be set on a horse carousel. Peter White, Deadline, 26 Nov. 2024 In recent years, AI researchers have been trying to develop a program that can learn to play any game well—Go, tic-tac-toe, chess, whatever—given only the rules of the game as input. Jonathan Schaeffer, IEEE Spectrum, 25 June 2014 But there's plenty more to explore at this autumn playground, including hay rides, a beer garden, a candy cannon, food trucks, a bubble barn, pumpkin tic-tac-toe and a kids' climbing wall. Melissa Santos, Axios, 9 Oct. 2024 With Marshall as its handsome host, The Hollywood Squares debuted on Oct. 17, 1966, out of a studio in Burbank, with nine celebrities seating in a huge tic-tac-toe board. Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Aug. 2024 The tic-tac-toe game featured two contestants agreeing or disagreeing with celebrities who provided answers to Marshall’s questions — which ranged from silly to ribald. Erik Pedersen, Deadline, 15 Aug. 2024 The bottom line: Robert Shumaker, a great ape researcher and official with the Indianapolis Zoo, lets chimpanzees and orangutans play touch-screen games like tic-tac-toe to visitors' delight. Andrew Keatts, Axios, 24 July 2024 Anyone could learn how to play perfect tic-tac-toe in one sitting by memorizing a few move sequences. Jack Murtagh, Scientific American, 16 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

tic-tac-toe, former game in which players with eyes shut brought a pencil down on a slate marked with numbers and scored the number hit

First Known Use

circa 1866, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of tic-tac-toe was circa 1866

Dictionary Entries Near tic-tac-toe

Cite this Entry

“Tic-tac-toe.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tic-tac-toe. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.

Kids Definition

tic-tac-toe

noun
variants or tick-tack-toe
ˌtik-ˌtak-ˈtō
: a game in which two players by turns put crosses and zeros in compartments of a figure formed by two vertical lines crossing two horizontal lines and each tries to get a row of three crosses or three zeros before the opponent does
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