variants
or skullduggery
as in deception
the use of clever underhanded actions to achieve an end
the company's apparently healthy bottom line was merely an illusion, the result of years of accounting skulduggery
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of skulduggery
But this week social media posts began to surface alleging the firm was engaged in skullduggery.
—
Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 26 Feb. 2026
The outcome of the family’s skulduggery, revealed over the end credits, should be a lip-smacking wicked delight.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 14 Feb. 2026
There was much more to it than that, including some skullduggery along the way.
—Kansas City Star, 22 Dec. 2025
The music industry is a notoriously cutthroat business, rife with tales of backstabbing and skullduggery.
—Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 16 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for skulduggery
Jeff John Roberts, Fortune, 26 Feb. 2026
The outcome of the family’s skulduggery, revealed over the end credits, should be a lip-smacking wicked delight.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 14 Feb. 2026
There was much more to it than that, including some skullduggery along the way.
—Kansas City Star, 22 Dec. 2025
The music industry is a notoriously cutthroat business, rife with tales of backstabbing and skullduggery.
—Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 16 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for skulduggery
Recent Examples of Synonyms for skulduggery
Noun
-
To Elliott, these seemingly minuscule mistakes that were ultimately corrected encapsulate Neon’s deception.—
Winston Cho,
HollywoodReporter,
21 Apr. 2026
-
Test your hand-eye coördination and deception skills by maneuvering open windows on your desktop background, answering e-mails and texts and looking at Instagram, all while appearing to be engaged.—
Charles Yu,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Inflamed by Ratansen’s adviser’s account of Padmavati’s beauty, Alauddin Khalji storms the fortress by treachery rather than valor.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
9 Apr. 2026
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But Bateman's treachery also had a distinctly silly side.—
Ryan Coleman,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Just typical power-grabbing Idaho lawmaker chicanery, right?—
Michael Deeds,
Idaho Statesman,
16 Apr. 2026
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In light of the chicanery that happens in the episode, the phrase also suggests a bit of victim-blaming for the harvesting of personal data.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
12 Apr. 2026
Noun
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In the Television Academy's Miami Vice oral history, Johnson revealed the show’s cutting-edge content was made possible by simple subterfuge.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
13 Apr. 2026
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The trio went to great lengths to perpetrate the subterfuge, the indictment claims, including using hair dryers to remove packaging labels that were then reaffixed to thousands of fake replica servers.—
Amanda Gerut,
Fortune,
7 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Obviously, the city knew that people would see through its trickery.—
U T Readers,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
22 Apr. 2026
-
Now, there is a little bit of trickery being employed here.—
Alan Bradley,
Space.com,
16 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Of course, the retort is that this would be irritating and exasperating to be continually deluged with alerts about AI deceptiveness.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
24 Aug. 2025
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Beyond the deceptiveness of the narrow material view, spiritual light and hope are always present to be found and felt.—
Sue Brightman,
Christian Science Monitor,
3 Jan. 2025
Noun
-
Other throwaways made it on the list thanks to Bieber’s gamesmanship or Billboard’s methodological quirks.—
Mikael Wood,
Los Angeles Times,
16 Apr. 2026
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Maybe Brown kept the pick-and-rolls, the dribble hand-offs, the give-and-go actions tucked as a form of gamesmanship so as to not tip his hand entering the playoffs.—
Kristian Winfield,
New York Daily News,
10 Apr. 2026
Noun
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Here’s why there’s so much secrecy around the publishing industry, and how fiction authors are faring.—
Josh Rivera,
USA Today,
19 Apr. 2026
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The wonderwall of secrecy has come down and the voters’ wishes for who will make it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame this year have become known.—
Chris Willman,
Variety,
14 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Skulduggery.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/skulduggery. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
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