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Don’t let the similarities of sound and general flavor between gambit and gamble trip you up; the two words are unrelated. Gambit first appeared in English in a 1656 chess handbook that was said to feature almost a hundred illustrated gambetts. Gambett traces back first to the Spanish word gambito, and before that to the Italian gambetto, from gamba meaning “leg.” Gambetto referred to the act of tripping someone, as in wrestling, in order to gain an advantage. In chess, gambit (or gambett, as it was once spelled) originally referred to a chess opening whereby the bishop’s pawn is intentionally sacrificed—or tripped—to gain an advantage in position. Gambit is now applied to many other chess openings, but after being pinned down for years, it also finally broke free of chess’s hold and is used generally to refer to any “move,” whether literal or rhetorical, done to get a leg up, so to speak. While such moves can be risky, gambit is not synonymous with gamble, which likely comes from Old English gamen, meaning “amusement, jest, pastime”—source too of game.
Examples of gambit in a Sentence
Kenneth R. Gosselin, Hartford Courant, 8 Feb. 2026
No high-stakes risk-reward gambit for Ja Morant, who still is with the Memphis Grizzlies.
—Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 5 Feb. 2026
California’s map, which could give Democrats five more seats, was redrawn in response to Texas’s gambit.
—Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 4 Feb. 2026
Fischbach has some thoughts as to why his gambit paid off, but first, learn a bit about him and the movie itself.
—Randall Colburn, Entertainment Weekly, 3 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for gambit
Cite this Entry
“Gambit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gambit. Accessed 11 Feb. 2026.
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