Ante

//ˈænti// name, noun, verb

name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A price or cost, as in up the ante.

    "“… There was a man who always painted marble seats and another who did nothing but sheep. So a fellow I knew determined only to paint backs. Men's backs, women's backs, girls' backs and boys backs. … his best known bacchante was described by a critic as all back and no ante, but his backs became famous. …”"

  2. 2
    (poker) the initial contribution that each player makes to the pot wordnet
  3. 3
    In poker and other games, the contribution made by all players to the pot, often before dealing all the cards.
Verb
  1. 1
    To pay the ante in poker. Often used as ante up.
  2. 2
    place one's stake wordnet
  3. 3
    To make an investment in money, effort, or time before knowing one's chances.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
forefore-pre-aboveaheadante up

Example

More examples

"Gauge queens constantly up the ante in order to assert their commitment to a counter cultural look."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin ante (“before”). Doublet of and.

Etymology 2

Various origins: * As a Spanish and Catalan surname, perhaps from ante (“elk; suede”). * As a Dutch and North German surname, from Ente (“duck”).

Related phrases

ante inante uppenny antepenny-anteraise the anteup the antepenny anteup ante

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.