as in blunt
being or characterized by direct, brief, and potentially rude speech or manner
he's a bluff but good-hearted teacher
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in to fool
to cause to believe what is untrue
I bluffed the interviewer into believing that I could really speak French and thus would be the perfect person to serve in the newspaper's Paris bureau
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in to pretend
to present a false appearance of
the basketball player bluffed a shot, then passed instead
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
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Recent Examples of bluff
Heidi Blake,
The New Yorker,
16 Oct. 2023
Though the Explorer majors much more on practicality, somehow Ford has managed to turn a fairly bluff front-end styling and generally boxy silhouette familiar to properly sensible family SUV into an attractive design.
—
WIRED,
21 Mar. 2023
Brian Boucher,
ARTnews.com,
17 June 2026
Follow the winding boardwalk down the bluff to discover what might be one of the Florida panhandle's quietest little beaches.
—
Tara Massouleh McCay,
Southern Living,
17 June 2026
ArsTechnica,
13 Apr. 2026
Soderbergh extracts some fun from the ensuing cat-and-mouse logistics, from Lori’s meticulous duplication of the Christophers to Julian’s efforts to bluff her into admitting her true intentions.
—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
3 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for bluff
Adjective
One day in 2010, an e-mail from Steve Wentzel, the Zimbabwean tycoon, arrived in the in-box of one of South Pole’s founders—a tall, bluff German man named Christian Dannecker.
—
Heidi Blake,
The New Yorker,
16 Oct. 2023
Though the Explorer majors much more on practicality, somehow Ford has managed to turn a fairly bluff front-end styling and generally boxy silhouette familiar to properly sensible family SUV into an attractive design.
—
WIRED,
21 Mar. 2023
Noun
The two-acre campus is structured around a reconstructed bluff on the Mississippi River, known locally as the promenade.
—
Brian Boucher,
ARTnews.com,
17 June 2026
Follow the winding boardwalk down the bluff to discover what might be one of the Florida panhandle's quietest little beaches.
—
Tara Massouleh McCay,
Southern Living,
17 June 2026
Verb
But now, prompting ChatGPT to bluff a reflection is no harder than prompting it to define terms.
—
ArsTechnica,
13 Apr. 2026
Soderbergh extracts some fun from the ensuing cat-and-mouse logistics, from Lori’s meticulous duplication of the Christophers to Julian’s efforts to bluff her into admitting her true intentions.
—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
3 Apr. 2026
See All Example Sentences for bluff
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bluff
Adjective
-
Erasure is sometimes too blunt a word for what happens to a literary life.
-
Patton Veterinary Hospital was blunt on its website.
Noun
-
An operation began using a California Highway Patrol helicopter and the Fire Department's cliff rescue and heavy rescue units, the post said.
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For outdoor enthusiasts, the system now features excursions like the trek up the Eiðiskollur cliffs towering above the northern village of Eiði.
Verb
-
Don’t be fooled; this isn’t your typical museum.
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Don’t be fooled by its breezy ’60s-analog vintage pop sound.
Verb
-
While attempting to clean up the bad press, the pair is forced to pretend to be best friends, during which the unlikely pair secretly falls in love.
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The show only pretends to be organized around romantic couples.
Adjective
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Skratch also interviewed other sources for its story who alleged infidelity by Mickelson amid abrupt endings of memberships at other golf clubs.
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Following the abrupt dissolution of Disney’s $1 billion investment in OpenAI’s Sora text-to-video app, Shin stressed that there are no plans to use A24’s existing IP to create GenAI tools.
Noun
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The tents are perched on top of escarpment with views of the TK below.
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Which means the 4,092-square-kilometer area between the high, forested escarpment and the wide stretches of the Zambezi River is still pretty untouched.
Verb
-
Ricky Saints tricked the referee into thinking Lil Yachty used the kendo stick on him, and after traveling all the way to Riyadh, Yachty was tossed out just minutes into the match.
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Use a password manager so fake sites do not trick you into reusing passwords.
Verb
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But there’s no way to simulate all the variables of real life, particularly the weather.
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Instead of developing multiple aircraft designs or conducting thousands of expensive flight tests, engineers can simulate those scenarios digitally and rapidly iterate on designs.
Cite this Entry
“Bluff.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bluff. Accessed 29 Jun. 2026.
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