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subterfuge

noun

Synonyms and Antonyms of subterfuge

the use of clever underhanded actions to achieve an end
  • propagandists who use a kind of photographic subterfuge, superimposing one image on another to create a false "reality"
Synonyms of subterfuge

artifice, chicane, chicanery, gamesmanship, hanky-panky, jugglery, legerdemain, skulduggery (or skullduggery), trickery, wile
Words Related to subterfuge

artfulness, caginess (also cageyness), craftiness, cunning, deviousness, foxiness, oiliness, shadiness, sharpness, shiftiness, shrewdness, slickness, slipperiness, slyness, sneakiness, treachery, underhandedness, wiliness

crookedness, deceit, deceitfulness, deception, deceptiveness, dishonesty, dissimulation, double-dealing, duplicity, guile, guilefulness, hypocrisy, insincerity

fakery, humbuggery, imposture, quackery

design, plotting, scheming
Near Antonyms of subterfuge

artlessness, forthrightness, guilelessness, ingenuousness, sincerity

candidness, candor, directness, openness, plainness, plainspokenness

Synonym Discussion of subterfuge

deception, fraud, double-dealing, subterfuge, trickery mean the acts or practices of one who deliberately deceives. deception may or may not imply blameworthiness, since it may suggest cheating or merely tactical resource.
    • magicians are masters of deception
fraud always implies guilt and often criminality in act or practice.
    • indicted for fraud
double-dealing suggests treachery or at least action contrary to a professed attitude.
    • a go-between suspected of double-dealing
subterfuge suggests the adoption of a stratagem or the telling of a lie in order to escape guilt or to gain an end.
    • obtained the papers by subterfuge
trickery implies ingenious acts intended to dupe or cheat.
    • resorted to trickery to gain their ends

Learn More about subterfuge

  1. See words that rhyme with subterfuge Dictionary: Definition of subterfuge Spanish Central: Translation of subterfuge Nglish: Translation of subterfuge for Spanish speakers

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