1
as in tricked
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
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in pretended
to present a false appearance of
the basketball player bluffed a shot, then passed instead
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of bluffed
Any time the Patriots succeed with a new blitz or bluffed blitz in the first quarter, offenses expect to see it again later in the game.
—
Andrew Callahan,
Boston Herald,
17 Jan. 2026
On the second interception, Simmons said Delaware bluffed as if an all-out blitz was coming before falling back into coverage and making the pick.
—
Walter Villa,
Miami Herald,
21 Sep. 2025
Andrew Callahan,
Boston Herald,
17 Jan. 2026
On the second interception, Simmons said Delaware bluffed as if an all-out blitz was coming before falling back into coverage and making the pick.
—
Walter Villa,
Miami Herald,
21 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bluffed
Verb
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While the war ended years before, the hostility spread from the stands — with skirmishes among supporters — into the field, when Maradona tricked the referee and the world with the World Cup’s most infamous goal, punching the ball into the net with his fist above England’s goalie Peter Shilton.
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The sample that tricked the most people came from a robot Bram Stoker.
Verb
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Earlier that day, Parker — who had pretended to be pregnant for 10 months — stabbed her pregnant friend Reagan Simmons-Hancock 15 times, then performed a crude cesarean section, cutting the fetus out of her body with a scalpel and removing it from her uterus.
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In what prosecutors believe was a ploy to keep her boyfriend Wade Griffin, Parker pretended to be pregnant with their child.
Verb
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The second swing was more of an off-balanced flail, the telltale sign of being fooled by a breaking ball.
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An incredibly realistic short almond nail set that may just have your friends fooled.
Verb
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The savings pool is smaller than assumed.
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Homicide detectives have assumed control and are investigating the incident.
Verb
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Some people in Israel say Netanyahu, in a way, deceived Trump.
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One is to emphasize Iago—the guileful, insinuating convincingness of this malicious supervillain, who works on Othello to the point where any reasonable man would be deceived and fooled and worked into a rage that can lead to such a catastrophe.
Verb
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To investigate the problem, the study authors simulated the future evolution of the Solar System using modern stellar-evolution models.
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Aaru, a two-year-old AI startup, simulated all of those voters—agents built from the kind of data the company collects, like credit card purchasing history, food-delivery orders, and demographic records—and tried to predict how the votes would be cast.
Cite this Entry
“Bluffed.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bluffed. Accessed 30 Jun. 2026.
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