winning

UK/ˈwɪnɪŋ/US/ˈwɪnɪŋ/

adjectiveB22 meanings Very common — you will meet it every day · #1,358 of 15,258leans written

Winning means charming and likeable — or simply coming first. Two senses that sit oddly together.

The competitive sense is the obvious one, so a winning goal, the winning ticket and a winning streak all mean victory. The charm sense is older and gentler, and a winning smile is one that wins people over rather than a contest. It is nearly always used of a smile or a manner. The noun winnings means the money you have won, and it is always plural.

Definitions of winning

1adjectivewinningCharming and appealing.B2~2%
“He has a winning way with customers.”
2adjectivewinsThat wins, or has won.B1~98%
“She scored the winning goal in the last minute.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 26 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense (18 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 9 of A Man Called Ove.

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winning in the wild

After winning the UEFA Conference League in 2025, Chelsea became the first club to win all four main UEFA competitions, as well as all UEFA Men's competitions.
Chelsea F.C.
The club established itself as a major force in Spanish and European football during the 1950s and 60s, winning five consecutive and six overall European Cups.
Real Madrid CF
In 2011, the club became European champions again, winning five trophies.
FC Barcelona
After winning the 2021 Nations League, they became the first, and so far, the only European national team to have won every senior FIFA and UEFA competition.
France national football team
In sports, a winning percentage, or Copeland score, is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won.
Winning percentage

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Definitions of winning

1adjectivewinningCharming and appealing.B2~2%

“He has a winning way with customers.”

2adjectivewinsThat wins, or has won.B1~98%

“She scored the winning goal in the last minute.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 26 sentences found in the wild and placed 8 of them on a sense (18 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.