A misère version of a game is a game that is played according to its conventional rules, except that it is "played to lose"; that is, the winner is the one who loses according to the normal game rules.

In combinatorial game theory, a misère game is one played according to the "misère play condition", namely that a player unable to move wins. (This is opposed to the "normal play condition" in which a player unable to move loses.) For most games this is the same as the ordinary use of the word, but a very few games are actually misère games according to their standard rules, for example sylver coinage.