as in to outwit
to get the better of through cleverness
an inexpensive security system that would likely be outsmarted by anyone with a serious interest in circumventing it
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Recent Examples of outsmart
And some of the bees that technically failed the test may have actually outsmarted their contemporaries—by learning to work smarter, not harder.
—
Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 4 June 2026
Seth Rollins outsmarts Bron Breakker The rivalry between Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker has not slowed down one bit.
—Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 2 June 2026
Sunday outsmarted Adam and Hannah with a ruse at Tribal Council.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 22 May 2026
The goal isn’t to outsmart wildfire season.
—Ryan Brennan
may 19, Kansas City Star, 19 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for outsmart
Adam Kovac, Scientific American, 4 June 2026
Seth Rollins outsmarts Bron Breakker The rivalry between Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker has not slowed down one bit.
—Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 2 June 2026
Sunday outsmarted Adam and Hannah with a ruse at Tribal Council.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 22 May 2026
The goal isn’t to outsmart wildfire season.
—Ryan Brennan
may 19, Kansas City Star, 19 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for outsmart
Recent Examples of Synonyms for outsmart
Verb
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Out of the first 3,000 participants, only three adults managed to outwit the kids and win the million-dollar grand prize.—
Greg Petro,
Forbes.com,
11 June 2026
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The Bed Rot Challenge is a new reality competition web series in which stars from Survivor, The Traitors, Love Island USA, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, The Bachelorette, and Beast Games will attempt to outwit and outlast each other… on a bed.—
Dalton Ross,
Entertainment Weekly,
27 May 2026
Verb
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Federal authorities arrested multiple people in connection with an alleged plot to target the Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House, thwarting an attack that court documents say would have involved drones, explosive devices and multiple gunmen.—
Christopher Cann,
USA Today,
17 June 2026
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Secure Boot is designed to thwart UEFI bootkits, a form of malware that alters the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, the successor to the BIOS, both of which begin the initial boot sequence.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
17 June 2026
Verb
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The question is no longer whether Vannacci will influence the vote, but whether Meloni can contain, co-opt or outmaneuver her challenger.—
Giada Zampano,
Fortune,
15 June 2026
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The question, analysts say, is no longer whether Vannacci will influence the vote, but whether Meloni can contain, co-opt or outmaneuver a challenger carving out political space to her right.—
ABC News,
ABC News,
14 June 2026
Verb
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Subscriptions started at $88 per week and included almost 300 templates for fake websites designed to deceive customers, a dashboard that allowed criminals to monitor their campaigns, a discussion forum where users could find collaborators and receive support, and keylogging capabilities.—
Will McCurdy,
PC Magazine,
13 June 2026
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No, your eyes do not deceive you.—
Matt Reigle OutKick,
FOXNews.com,
13 June 2026
Verb
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And the resounding manner of Burnham’s win – comprehensively defeating Reform weeks after Labour was routed in local elections – gives him considerable momentum too.—
Issy Ronald,
CNN Money,
20 June 2026
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Scotland, which defeated Haiti 1-0 on the same field last Friday, likely would need to beat or draw Brazil in its group-stage finale in Miami to qualify for the Round of 32.—
Zack Cox,
Boston Herald,
20 June 2026
Verb
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The Bulldogs fell behind 3-0 in the first and could not overcome the early deficit thanks to the efforts of OU starting pitcher Xander Mercurius’ 7 1/3 quality innings pitched.—
Hunter DeLauder,
AJC.com,
16 June 2026
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Chasing atomic limits To overcome that challenge, the KAIST team relied on first-principles calculations, a computational approach that predicts material behavior using the laws of physics rather than experimental data.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
16 June 2026
Verb
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Liv Morgan begged for a tag, but she was outfoxed by a blind tag from Rhea Ripley.—
Alfred Konuwa,
Forbes.com,
25 Jan. 2026
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But even foxes can outfox themselves by their own designs.—
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld,
Time,
20 Jan. 2026
Verb
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Kurt's key takeaways Rick's story is a tough reminder that scams can look polished enough to fool careful people.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
15 June 2026
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Busch wasn’t fooled when San Francisco Giants lefty reliever Erik Miller hung a 1-1 slider over the plate in the fifth inning.—
Meghan Montemurro,
Chicago Tribune,
13 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Outsmart.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/outsmart. Accessed 21 Jun. 2026.
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