gamesmanship

noun

games·​man·​ship ˈgāmz-mən-ˌship 

1

: the art or practice of winning games by questionable expedients without actually violating the rules

2

: the use of ethically dubious methods to gain an objective

Synonyms

• artifice
• chicane
• chicanery
• hanky-panky
• jiggery-pokery
• jugglery
• legerdemain
• skulduggery
• skullduggery
• subterfuge
• trickery
• wile

Examples of gamesmanship in a Sentence

They blur the line between gamesmanship and cheating.

that author doesn't go in for literary gamesmanship, so the reader is never led astray by the novel's narrator

Recent Examples on the Web

The fact that the default position of the news media had moved from skepticism to cynicism—implying that every political act was a form of partisan gamesmanship—certainly played a large part. —Joe Klein, Foreign Affairs, 13 June 2017

These adults, who are basically co-opting the kiddies in order to do battle with you, are also providing an example of adolescent gamesmanship. —Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 10 Apr. 2024

Other residents expressed unease that Harford is being used for political gamesmanship. —Matt Hubbard, Baltimore Sun, 22 June 2024

That agenda, if followed dutifully, could reflect a clearer representation of voters’ aggregate interests that one created by a human susceptible to self-interest and political gamesmanship. —Mack Degeurin, Popular Science, 12 June 2024

Word History

Etymology

games, plural of game entry 1 + -manship (after sportsmanship)

Note: A word popularized and probably originated in this sense by the British author Stephen Potter (1900-69) in The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship (1947).

First Known Use

1947, in the meaning defined at sense 1