Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

game of two halves

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.47 in modern English

Syllables: game of t-wo halves
IPA

30

Scrabble Score

15

Letters

2

Syllables

12

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

Something that makes a major turnaround over the course of its lifespan.

Example Sentences

"In a few minutes they would be reporting their performances for Vijay's spreadsheet, and Doug would be almost certain to say it had been a game of two halves. Well, it had been for him at least. Nick had been losing all night, but looking across the table it seemed that Doug was back where he'd started."
"The Conservative century was therefore a game of two halves with regard to the procedures for defining parliamentary constituencies."
"We also understand why Dracula is a game of two halves: the first half (the attack) takes us from the Natural to the Unnatural path; the second half takes us back."

Etymology

From football (soccer) commentary in the late 1980s.

Inflected Forms

games of two halves (plural)

Questions

What does game of two halves mean?: Something that makes a major turnaround over the course of its lifespan.
Where does game of two halves come from?: From football (soccer) commentary in the late 1980s.

How to pronounce game of two halves

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “game of two halves”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “game of two halves”.
Repeat and practice — Say “game of two halves” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.