Did you know?
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
Nicholas Quah, Vulture, 26 May 2025
Editors’ Picks Democrats said the Republican gambit was flimsy cover for doing just that.
—Carl Hulse, New York Times, 21 May 2025
The zone’s gambit to limit drives from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander worked, and Oklahoma City frequently found holes but couldn’t exploit them.
—Luca Evans, Denver Post, 9 May 2025
The Trump family’s latest cryptocurrency gambit may have flown too close to the sun.
—Shannon Carroll, Quartz, 7 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for gambit
Cite this Entry
“Gambit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gambit. Accessed 15 Jun. 2025.
Copy Citation
Share