Definition

1. Noun:
   • A clever and often deceptive plan or scheme designed to achieve a specific goal, especially to outwit an opponent or to gain an advantage. It implies cunning, trickery, or skillful planning.
   • A tactical maneuver, especially in a military context, game, or conversation. It refers to a clever move intended to gain a strategic position.

Examples of Usage

• Noun:
  • The general's brilliant stratagem involved feigning a retreat to lure the enemy into a trap.
  • She saw through his stratagem to get the promotion and refused to play along.
  • In chess, sacrificing a pawn can be an effective stratagem to control the center of the board.

Advanced Usage

• "A stratagem of war": A specific deceptive plan used in military conflict.
  • The Trojan Horse is history's most famous stratagem of war.
• "To employ/devise a stratagem": To use or create a clever and deceptive plan.
  • The spy employed a complex stratagem to pass the secret documents.

Variants and Related Words

• Strategic (adj): Relating to the identification of long-term goals and the planning of actions to achieve them.
  • The CEO made a strategic decision to enter the Asian market.
• Strategist (n): A person skilled in planning action or policy, especially in war, politics, or business.
  • She is a talented political strategist.

Synonyms

• Ruse: A deceptive action or maneuver.
• Ploy: A cunning plan or action designed to turn a situation to one's own advantage.
• Gambit: A device, action, or opening remark, typically one entailing a degree of risk, calculated to gain an advantage.
• Subterfuge: Deceit used to achieve one's goal.

Related Phrases

• "A stratagem for success": A clever plan designed to achieve success.
  • His friendly demeanor was merely a stratagem for success in the sales meeting.

Noun

1. an elaborate or deceitful scheme contrived to deceive or evade
   • his testimony was just a contrivance to throw us off the track
2. a maneuver in a game or conversation