Gambler
nounA person who plays games of chance for money, or who takes risky chances generally.
How to spell gambler
7 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce gambler
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does gambler mean?
- nounA person who plays games of chance for money, or who takes risky chances generally.
Gambler in a sentence
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The casino kept a close watch on every high-stakes gambler at the table.
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As a cautious investor, she refused to behave like a reckless gambler with her savings.
Where does gambler come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Gambler is built from the verb 'gamble', which appeared in English in the early 1700s and is generally taken to be a dialectal variant of the older verb 'game', meaning to play at games of chance for money. 'Game' itself descends from the Old English 'gamen', which meant amusement, sport, or merriment, a thoroughly native Germanic word. Over time the noisy connotation of betting and risk attached itself to the newer 'gamble' spelling, with its inserted 'b' echoing the pattern of words like 'amble' and 'ramble'. The agent suffix '-er' then turned the verb into a noun for the person who does the gambling, just as 'bake' yields 'baker'. The handy thing to remember for spelling is that there is a silent, easily dropped 'b' in the middle: gam-B-ler, exactly as in the verb gamble.
How the word is built
- gamble (to play games of chance for money)
- -er (agent suffix: one who does)
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