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Definition of stratagem
1a : an artifice or trick in war for deceiving and outwitting the enemyb : a cleverly contrived trick or scheme for gaining an end
2 : skill in ruses or trickery
From the M-W Editors
stratagem was our Word of the Day on 12/02/2011. Hear the podcast!
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
Examples of stratagem in a Sentence
tried various stratagems to get the cat into the carrier, but the feisty feline was wise to them all
Recent Examples of stratagem from the Web
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Hence, Ms. Knight Pulliam’s dismaying deployment, seemingly, as an instrument of stratagem.
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Wily Odysseus uses the answer as a successful stratagem to escape the Cyclops’ grasp, but, abandoned by the gods and his relatives and friends, Orestes confronts the reality of nullity.
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Instead of maximizing pill profits, his job is to save millions of dollars by educating doctors about expensive prescriptions and the stratagems used to sell them.
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Instead of maximizing pill profits, his job is to save millions of dollars by educating doctors about expensive prescriptions and the stratagems used to sell them.
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Starting in 2014, those stratagems were outlawed on the individual market.
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Although evocative of a Robert Ludlum thriller, the stratagem is not all that complicated.
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His military and political stratagems coincided with a receptive mood in revolutionary France, which abolished slavery in 1794.
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While most plants rely on the sun for energy and food, some pursue a strange alternative stratagem: thievery.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'stratagem'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
A "stratagem" is any clever scheme - sometimes one that's part of an overall "strategy" (i.e., a carefully worked out plan of action). Clearly, we no longer limit ourselves to the original military sense of "stratagem" as 15th-century users of the term did. The military meaning can be traced back to the word's Greek ancestor strategema, which is itself based on strategein, meaning "to act as a general." "Strategein" in turn comes from "strategos" ("general"), which comes from "stratos" ("army") and "agein" ("to lead"). "Strategos" is an ancestor of "strategy" as well.
Synonym Discussion of stratagem
STRATAGEM Defined for English Language Learners
stratagem
playDefinition of stratagem for English Language Learners
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: a trick or plan for deceiving an enemy or for achieving a goal
STRATAGEM Defined for Kids
stratagem
playDefinition of stratagem for Students
: a clever trick or plan
Learn More about stratagem
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See words that rhyme with stratagem Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for stratagem Spanish Central: Translation of stratagem Nglish: Translation of stratagem for Spanish speakers
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