as in outsmarting
to get the better of through cleverness
a plan to outwit their opponents at their own game
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Recent Examples of outwitting
Time and Numbers—there’s no outwitting them.
—
Joy Williams, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Ben Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Michael Knowles, Alex O’Connor—these are professional debaters capable of outwitting and outreasoning almost any audience member unfamiliar with traditional debate techniques, regardless of the topic or claim being considered.
—Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2025
Joy Williams, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Ben Shapiro, Pete Buttigieg, Michael Knowles, Alex O’Connor—these are professional debaters capable of outwitting and outreasoning almost any audience member unfamiliar with traditional debate techniques, regardless of the topic or claim being considered.
—Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for outwitting
Verb
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Invite critiques to maintain humility Nicholas likes to tell his team that loyalty in retail is just the absence of something better, and he is driven by a fear of rivals like Costco outsmarting his business.—
Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson,
semafor.com,
17 Oct. 2025
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Because some of them act like complete idiots, but Wendy is constantly outsmarting everyone.—
Erik Kain,
Forbes.com,
18 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Polls show the race tightening as Mamdani looks to hold his lead after defeating Cuomo in a stunning upset in the June primary.—
Eduardo Cuevas,
USA Today,
3 Nov. 2025
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His team fell one win — one run — short of defeating baseball’s behemoth in the World Series.—
Mitch Bannon,
New York Times,
2 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The clever joke comes just as the White House is thwarting criticism from its own renovation controversy.—
Moná Thomas,
PEOPLE,
3 Nov. 2025
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Both structures are placed directly over plants, but critter cages are used to deter wildlife and critters like deer, rabbits, and birds, and cloches are better at thwarting smaller pests and keeping plants warm.—
Lauren Landers,
Better Homes & Gardens,
28 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Gordon warned me that this was deceiving.—
Ava Kofman,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
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Santos was sentenced to prison in April after admitting last year to deceiving donors and stealing the identities of 11 people — including his own family members — to make donations to his campaign.—
David Mark,
The Washington Examiner,
31 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Relay is a smart, small-scale espionage film focused on operatives outmaneuvering one another.—
Scott Phillips,
Forbes.com,
19 Aug. 2025
Verb
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Key challenges to commercialization include creating a material that is both safe and highly conductive and overcoming the high costs of mass production.—
Bojan Stojkovski,
Interesting Engineering,
2 Nov. 2025
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Castellani and Muritiba spoke about how the United States can learn from Brazil and their country’s history of overcoming fascism.—
Andrew McGowan,
Variety,
29 Oct. 2025
Verb
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Anyone who predicted this Titans team to win more than four or five games was fooling themselves, and even those predictions are coming off over-optimistic.—
Nick Suss,
Nashville Tennessean,
3 Nov. 2025
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Either Michigan is fooling everyone in college football, or the Wolverines are fooling themselves.—
Austin Meek,
New York Times,
2 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Outwitting.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/outwitting. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.
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