Checkers

How to spell checkers

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce checkers

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does checkers mean?

1. nounA board game for two players using flat round pieces on a squared board, known in Britain as draughts.
2. nounPeople whose job is to inspect, verify, or count items.
3. nounA pattern of alternating squares of contrasting colour.

Checkers in a sentence

• My grandfather taught me to play checkers on rainy afternoons.

• The warehouse hired extra checkers to verify each shipment.

• The tablecloth was printed with red and white checkers.

• The family kept a worn box of checkers beside the chessboard.

• The quality checkers flagged two faulty units on the line.

• The kitchen floor showed a bold pattern of black and white checkers.

Where does checkers come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back, surprisingly, to the game of chess and ultimately to royalty. The root is the Old French eschequier, meaning a chessboard, which in turn came from eschec, a move in chess, and behind that lies the Persian shah, meaning 'king'. The same Old French eschequier gave English the noun 'checker', originally a chessboard or a pattern of alternating squares like the one a board carries. By the 1700s the marked board lent its name to the game played on it with flat round pieces, and Americans came to call that game 'checkers' (the version the British know as draughts). The plural noun also survives in everyday use for people who inspect or verify things, and for the squared pattern itself, so the modern spelling keeps the doubled inspection sense and the gaming sense side by side.

How the word is built

• check (from Old French eschequier, a chessboard)
• -er (noun)
• -s (plural)