Other forms: winners
A winner is the one who comes first. The winner of the race, a clear winner, and the winner is.
It also means something that is bound to succeed: that idea is a winner, an absolute winner. That use is informal and warm. In football, the winner is the goal that decides the match — he scored the winner in the last minute — which is a fixed and very common use in sports reporting. Note winners and losers, which is the standard phrase for who gains and who does not from any change, and no-win, meaning a situation where neither outcome is good.
1nounwinnerSomebody who comes first or wins something.
“The winner gets a trophy nobody has room for.”
2nouncertainSomething certain to succeed.
“The new menu is a winner.”
3noungoalThe goal or point that decides a match.
“She scored the winner with two minutes left.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
winner is somebody who wins.
Middle English
wynner
English, today
winner
Middle English wynner, wynnere, equivalent to win + er. Compare stq Winner (“winner”), West Frisian winner (“winner”), Dutch winner and winnaar (“winner”), German Low German Winner, Gewinner (“winner”), German Gewinner (“winner”), Danish vinder (“winner”), Swedish vinnare (“winner”), Norwegian vinner (“winner”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA