Word of the Day
: April 11, 2026subterfuge
playWhat It Means
Subterfuge is a formal word that refers to the use of tricks to hide, avoid, or get something.
// They obtained the documents by subterfuge.
subterfuge in Context
“Despite her difficult childhood, Mavis [Gallant] persevered, through grit, bloody-mindedness, an absence of self-pity, and an ironic sense of humor. Lunch with her was always hilarious and often horrifying: the tales she told about her life exceeded in unlikely gruesomeness even her own fiction. She certainly had the ‘cold eye’ that Yeats recommended for writers, and she saw through subterfuge, no matter who was trying it on.” — Margaret Atwood, The New Yorker, 6 Apr. 2025
Did You Know?
Though subterfuge is a synonym of deception, fraud, double-dealing, and trickery, there’s nothing tricky about the word’s etymology. English borrowed the word with its meaning from the Late Latin noun subterfugium, which in turn comes from the Latin verb subterfugere, meaning “to escape, evade.” That word combines the prefix subter-, meaning “secretly” (from the adverb subter, meaning “underneath”) with the verb fugere, which means “to flee” and which is also the source of words such as fugitive and refuge, among others.
Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes
Test Your Vocabulary
What seven-letter word starting with s is part of a noun phrase, with of hand, that refers to skill and dexterity in conjuring tricks?
VIEW THE ANSWER
