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

How China Hit Back As with earlier countermoves to U.S. trade penalties, including the 34% on American goods tariff announced Friday, Beijing hit back with targeted action. —Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Apr. 2025

Watch The following day, Trump showed his support to Musk by vowing to buy himself a Tesla, a countermove to those who have sought to boycott the electric car company. —Sam Gillette, People.com, 12 Mar. 2025

During the strike, the powers that be on both Mars and Earth drew the wrong lessons and have been choosing countermoves from the best seller Bad Faith Disproportionate Response Handbook as a result. —Sophie Brookover, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2024

Canada and China have already retaliated: The countermoves signal new trade conflicts with the U.S.'s top three trading partners and threatened to upend nearly $2.2 trillion in two-way annual trade. —Nicole Fallert, USA TODAY, 4 Mar. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1858, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for countermove

• disapprove
• approve
• disprove
• improve
• remove
• reprove
• groove
• move
• prove