Thesaurus results for OUTSMARTED

outsmarted

verb

past tense of outsmart

as in outwitted

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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 outsmarted 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 Sunday outsmarted Adam and Hannah with a ruse at Tribal Council. —

Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 22 May 2026 Instead of drafting franchise cornerstones in JaMarr Chase or Penei Sewell, ex-GM Chris Grier outsmarted himself. —

Barry Jackson, Miami Herald, 24 Apr. 2026 The struggle resonated with parents on Reddit, many of whom admitted they have been outsmarted by their own baby gear. —

Kelly McGreal, FOXNews.com, 1 Apr. 2026 In each of these cases, a tech company outsmarted a human—or several—either by producing text convincing enough to pass the smell test, or by creating and marketing a service that convinced a writer to offload part of their labor. —

James Folta, Literary Hub, 1 Apr. 2026 He gets outsmarted by Forst and trapped in a symbiotic relationship where has to work for the world’s worst man to see his discovery come to fruition. —

Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 10 Mar. 2026 However, ancient mythology is filled with examples of crafty foxes being outsmarted by their own traps. —

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Time, 20 Jan. 2026 However, Cena outsmarted him by grabbing the chair, throwing it next to Dom, and pretending to be down on the mat. —

Matthew Couden, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 Nov. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for outsmarted

Verb

Towering over the town is another, much bigger, Venetian fort, the Palamidhi (named after Palamedes, Nafplio’s legendarily clever local hero, who outwitted Odysseus and, well, didn’t live long enough to regret it).

— Helen Brown, TheWeek, 30 Apr. 2026
Twenty-six years ago, students treated a visit by then-President Bill Clinton as a challenge, and outwitted the Secret Service by secretly rigging a banner to unfurl at an inopportune moment.

— Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 26 Apr. 2026