tic-tac-toe

tic-tac-toe

also tick-tack-toe or tick·tack·toe (tĭk′tăk′tō′)

A game played by two people, each trying to make a line of three X's or three O's in a boxlike figure with nine spaces.

[Probably imitative of the sounds of the original children's game, in which players brought pencils down on a numbered slate with their eyes shut.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tic-tac-toe

(Games, other than specified) a variant of tick-tack-toe

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

tic-tac-toe - a game in which two players alternately put crosses and circles in one of the compartments of a square grid of nine spaces; the object is to get a row of three crosses or three circles before the opponent does

noughts and crosses, ticktacktoe, tick-tack-toe, ticktacktoo, tit-tat-toe

board game - a game played on a specially designed board

Translations

tic-tac-toe

[ˌtɪktækˈtəʊ] N (US) → tres m en raya

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

It can be very distracting to observe a parent playing tic-tac-toe or some ball-bouncing game with a child in a pew nearby.

Mind your manners, Massgoers: from pre-liturgy gabbing to bare midriffs to Cheerios strewn all over the floor, some of our fellow worshipers could take a lesson from Emily Post

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Grand visions

Artisan House turned an oversize metal wall sculpture into a magnetic tic-tac-toe game that's great for cocktail parties.

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A Cork school has come up with a method of disposing of used chewing gum, while students from Monaghan are showing off what they describe as a "fool-proof" strategy for beating all comers at Tic-Tac-Toe, draughts and Connect 4.

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He begins by imparting Boolean logic through a demonstration of a machine that plays tic-tac-toe. Then, he describes a universal construction set in terms of the shortcomings of Lego blocks.

SCIENCE NEWS BOOKS

Junior GigaMath Playground and GigaMath Playground have an abundance of activities that young children say are "fun and easy." Besides practice rooms for the four operations, both programs have Concentration and Tic-Tac-Toe games available.

Junior GigaMath Playground, Ages 4-8, GigaMath Playground, Ages 7-14

As the diagram shows, this linear configuration creates a kind of tic-tac-toe grid with the pool in the center square.

The compound idea

by getting a gung-ho computer to play lightning tic-tac-toe. After a few tense moments, the machine figures out that nuclear war, like tic-tac-toe, is a futile waste of time.

Into the heart of the mind: an American quest for artificial intelligence

Westphal, a former teacher and current gifted education consultant, helps teachers differentiate language arts instruction for high-ability learners in grades six through eight using menus based on Bloom's revised taxonomy, and focused on providing students with choices: tic-tac-toe, list, meal, 20-50-80, baseball, and game show menus, and free choice.

Language Arts: Advanced-Level Menus Grades 6-8, 2nd Edition

This super compact yet highly functional game box is a compilation of lost and found games from cultures around the world as well as beloved board game classics like checkers and tic-tac-toe, but the ultimate goal of the game is to inspire players to create.

The Bead Game Box is Changing the World of Gaming

Stepan got his second in a mass scramble in front of Tokarski at 12:06 and Kreider tied it on a power play at 14:12 on a tic-tac-toe play after Subban lost his stick.

Habs force Game 6 with decisive victory