Synonyms of gambit

gambit

noun

ˈgam-bət 

as in ruse

a clever often underhanded means to achieve an end

The seemingly benign questioning was all just a gambit to get them to fess up to their wrongdoing.

Synonyms & Similar Words

• ruse
• scheme
• trick
• device
• stratagem
• ploy
• jig
• dodge
• sleight of hand
• fetch
• bluff
• knack
• gimmick
• flimflam
• sleight
• wile
• play
• deception
• artifice
• cunning
• feint
• subterfuge
• juggle
• shenanigan
• trickery
• chicanery
• duplicity
• hoax
• swindle
• skulduggery
• end run
• swindling
• legerdemain
• jugglery
• cheating
• fakery
• fraud
• sham
• gaff
• crookery
• blind
• smoke screen
• craft
• cozenage
• front
• dupery

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of gambit

Putin's decades-long project culminated in the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a gambit now in its fifth year. — David Brennan, ABC News, 17 July 2026

And Johnson’s gambit to attach the SAVE America Act to important legislation risks not only derailing bipartisan policy but another government shutdown, too. — Sorelle Wyckoff Gaynor, The Conversation, 17 July 2026

The market has, finally, come around to Apple's low-cost AI gambit. — Kevin Stankiewicz,alexa Lomonaco, CNBC, 16 July 2026

Ten years on, after devising the victorious Trojan Horse gambit, Ulysses attempts to return to Ithaca and the pining Penelope, whose palace has been overrun with scheming suitors seeking her hand. — Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 16 July 2026

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