countermove

noun

coun·​ter·​move ˈkau̇n-tər-ˌmüv 

variants or counter-move

plural countermoves or counter-moves

: a move designed to check, offset, or counter another move

Chess-playing programs, for instance, were … instructed to look ahead and try to calculate all possible moves and countermoves.

—Tom Alexander

… had seen … a linebacker drift out and line up nose to nose on a wide receiver. It surprised them, and they had come up with a countermove.

—Mark Bowden

… wanted to play out the long-term implications of possible U.S. moves and Iranian countermoves.

—James Fallows

"Their kidnapping of Miss Tuppence is the counter-move to your escape."

—Agatha Christie

Examples of countermove in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These countermoves are whipping up a default perfect storm. —Carla Norrlof, Foreign Affairs, 18 Mar. 2022

Instead of digesting this laughable conclusion and making a cunning countermove, Danvers lashes out, accusing Kate and the mine of covering up Annie K.’s murder and the water pollution near Ennis. —Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 9 Feb. 2024

This interplay ensures that the balance of survival never stagnates, as each evolutionary innovation prompts a countermove in the complex chess game of predator-prey relationships. —Scott Travers, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024

Put simply, with Shopify expanding its reach, Amazon’s Buy with Prime Assist seems like a smart countermove. —Chris Walton, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1858, in the meaning defined above