as in exploits
to control or take advantage of by artful, unfair, or insidious means
played upon the customer's vanity to convince her to buy the expensive makeup kit
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for plays (upon)
Verb
-
The hackers used a common tactic known as credential stuffing to access the data, which exploits weak and reused passwords.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
30 May 2026 -
The addition was a prompt injection, a form of AI attack that exploits an LLM’s inability to distinguish between legitimate user prompts and those from unauthorized, potentially malicious third parties.—
Dan Goodin,
ArsTechnica,
28 May 2026
Verb
-
The Rams star quarterback manipulates opposing players with his eyes.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
31 May 2026
-
Williams acknowledges that there are fears about dubbing fixes being the thin end of a wedge that could lead to actors being replaced, even if Flawless’ AI only manipulates the face from the nose down.—
Jake Kanter,
Deadline,
27 May 2026
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.
Cite this Entry
“Plays (upon).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plays%20%28upon%29. Accessed 4 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
