minimax
\MIN-uh-maks\
noun
1. a strategy of game theory employed to minimize a player's maximum possible loss.
Quotes
This is the principle of minimax: assume that the worst may happen and act accordingly; remember that lightning always strikes twice in the same place. This is a basic law known to all successful gamblers.
-- William S. Burroughs, The Adding Machine: Selected Essays, 1993
Origin
Minimax entered English in the 1900s and is a lexical blend of the terms minimum and maximum.
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