stratagem

English

Etymology

From Old French stratageme, from Latin strategema, from Ancient Greek στρατήγημα (stratḗgēma, “the act of a general, a piece of generalship”), from στρατηγέω (stratēgéō, “to be a general, command an army”), from στρατηγός (stratēgós, “a general, the leader or commander of an army”). See strategy.

(deprecated template usage)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹæt.ə.dʒəm/

Noun

stratagem (plural stratagems)

1. A tactic or artifice designed to gain the upper hand, especially one involving underhanded dealings or deception.
   • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[1]:

     While Collins does include a love triangle, a coming-of-age story, and other YA-friendly elements in the mix, they serve as a Trojan horse to smuggle readers into a hopeless world where love becomes a stratagem and growing up is a matter of basic survival.

Related terms

• strategic
• strategist
• strategy

Translations

tactic

• Catalan: estratagema f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 伎倆／伎俩 (zh) (jìliǎng), 伎俩 (zh) (jìliǎng)

• Dutch: krijgslist (nl)
• Estonian: sõjakavalus, kavalus
• Finnish: petos (fi), juoni (fi), salajuoni
• French: stratagème (fr) m
• German: Kriegslist f, Strategem n (elevated), Stratagem n (elevated)
• Greek: στρατήγημα (el) n (stratígima)
• Hungarian: hadicsel (hu)
• Indonesian: muslihat (id), siasat (id)
• Italian: stratagemma (it) m, tattica (it) f, schema (it) m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: 計略 (けいりゃく, keiryaku), 謀略 (ぼうりゃく, bōryaku), 策略 (ja) (さくりゃく, sakuryaku)
• Latin: sūtēla f, stratēgēma n
• Maori: nuka, rauhanga
• Norwegian: list (no) c, krigslist c
• Polish: fortel (pl) m, chwyt (pl) m, zagrywka (pl) f
• Portuguese: estratagema (pt) f, maquinação (pt) f
• Russian: уло́вка (ru) f (ulóvka), хи́трость (ru) f (xítrostʹ), ухищре́ние (ru) n (uxiščrénije), стратаге́ма (ru) f (stratagéma)
• Spanish: estratagema (es) f
• Swedish: krigslist c
• Thai: ชั้นเชิง (th) (chán-chəəng)
• Turkish: harp hilesi, savaş hilesi

Further reading

• “stratagem”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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Old French

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin strategema, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek στρατήγημα (stratḗgēma).

Noun

stratagem oblique singular, m (oblique plural stratagens, nominative singular stratagens, nominative plural stratagem)

1. strategy; stratagem