bluff 1 of 3

bluff

2 of 3

noun

as in cliff
a steep wall of rock, earth, or ice fossils embedded in a stone bluff that date from the Jurassic period

Synonyms & Similar Words

bluff

3 of 3

verb

Synonym Chooser

How is the word bluff distinct from other similar adjectives?

Some common synonyms of bluff are blunt, brusque, crusty, curt, and gruff. While all these words mean "abrupt and unceremonious in speech and manner," bluff connotes good-natured outspokenness and unconventionality.

a bluff manner

When can blunt be used instead of bluff?

The meanings of blunt and bluff largely overlap; however, blunt suggests directness of expression in disregard of others' feelings.

a blunt appraisal

When is it sensible to use brusque instead of bluff?

While the synonyms brusque and bluff are close in meaning, brusque applies to a sharpness or ungraciousness.

a brusque response

When might crusty be a better fit than bluff?

Although the words crusty and bluff have much in common, crusty suggests a harsh or surly manner sometimes concealing an inner kindliness.

a crusty exterior

When would curt be a good substitute for bluff?

The words curt and bluff can be used in similar contexts, but curt implies disconcerting shortness or rude conciseness.

a curt command

When could gruff be used to replace bluff?

In some situations, the words gruff and bluff are roughly equivalent. However, gruff suggests a hoarse or husky speech which may imply bad temper but more often implies embarrassment or shyness.

puts on a gruff pose

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of 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
Fifteen years after her husband’s drowning in the nearby bay, Tressilian’s days are spent in a cranky routine: grumbling over the obscene resort stationed on the opposite bluff, reading London’s gossip columns, and summoning the household help with the insistent ringing of a bedroom call bell. Erik Morse, Vogue, 15 Apr. 2025 The hikers were found about 4.5 miles from the trailhead on a bluff above the Verde River, officials said. Helena Wegner, Sacramento Bee, 21 Mar. 2025
Verb
Investors, Wall Street executives and major donors convinced themselves either that Mr. Trump was bluffing, or would be talked out of his most aggressive tariff proposals. Tyler Pager, New York Times, 10 Apr. 2025 The high reciprocal tariffs caught investors, who thought perhaps Trump was bluffing, off guard. Medora Lee, USA Today, 4 Apr. 2025 See All Example Sentences for bluff
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bluff
Adjective
  • Her brand features blunt honesty and humor, as well as fashion, beauty, and lifestyle tips.
    Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 22 May 2025
  • City’s video tribute was a tear-jerker, and less hardy characters than De Bruyne — nicknamed ‘the tumble dryer’ due to his dry (and blunt) approach — would surely have cracked and let the tears roll.
    Sam Lee, New York Times, 21 May 2025
Noun
  • But innovation is paired with complexity as regulatory systems lag and organizations grapple with tariffs, patent cliffs, M&As and global competition.
    Tonushree Mondal, Forbes.com, 14 May 2025
  • Even with the latest turnaround, U.S. consumers may still see some empty shelves in the coming weeks as the supply chain falls off the cliff.
    Philip Elliott, Time, 12 May 2025
Verb
  • Don’t let the name fool you: Apple TV+’s new science-fiction series Murderbot isn’t actually about a rampaging robot killing everything in sight, though Alexander Skarsgard’s SecUnit certainly ponders the idea from time to time.
    Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 12 May 2025
  • One common jailbreak involved fooling ChatGPT by asking it to role-play as a different AI—one that had no rules and was allowed to write phishing e-mails.
    Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 7 May 2025
Verb
  • That’s the point of him; as the Mission: Impossible franchise’s secret agent extraordinaire, Hunt can pretend to be anyone, accomplish basically any physical task, and uncover conspiracies with aplomb.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 23 May 2025
  • That old man was Trump—who had just been hospitalized with COVID-19, but was pretending that everything was fine—and yet the column was about America’s gerontocracy as a whole, and what Smith suggested was an unsustainable media omertà around it.
    Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 23 May 2025
Adjective
  • Wallen's album comes out months after his abrupt exit from Saturday Night Live in March — which came five years after his controversial initial SNL appearance.
    Marina Watts, People.com, 16 May 2025
  • And that’s before considering Andrew Witty’s abrupt exit announced just this week.
    Seth Joseph, Forbes.com, 16 May 2025
Noun
  • The rim is a 1,200-foot-tall escarpment that rises dramatically above a broad valley, giving you the perfect perch for spotting the show.
    Graham Averill, Outside Online, 3 Mar. 2025
  • The stately Fairmont Le Château Frontenac is a ubiquitous presence in Quebec City, always peering down on visitors from its highpoint on the Cap Diamant escarpment.
    Vjosa Isai, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • Their goal is to trick people into sharing their Medicare or Social Security number.
    Hugh Cameron, MSNBC Newsweek, 19 May 2025
  • Life at the house seems more entertaining, but is that just a foolish fantasy designed to trick us into thinking that there is safe harbor somewhere?
    Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic, 19 May 2025
Verb
  • Resilience Testing Through Chaos Engineering A compelling example of living intelligence in cloud and DevOps is Netflix’s Chaos Engineering platform, which simulates real-world failures to proactively test system resilience.
    Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 19 May 2025
  • It’s based on 5,000 conversations that simulate interactions between individual users or clinicians and AI models.
    Annika Kim Constantino,Ashley Capoot,Bertha Coombs, CNBC, 14 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Bluff.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bluff. Accessed 29 May. 2025.

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