Crossword Dictionary

stratagem

noun

A plan or scheme, especially one used to outwit an opponent or achieve an end.

synonyms

plan, scheme, tactic, manoeuvre, course of action, line of action, ploy, gambit

examples:

‘Cunning plans, devious stratagems, state-of-the-art conventional forces, and legal and moral proscriptions, can all be helpful.’

‘If the hero wants to get the abducted girl home, and if the villain has discovered his plan, and means to subvert it, what stratagems will each employ in the last reel?’

‘It is not that the statute has a penumbral spirit which strikes down devices or stratagems designed to avoid its terms or exploit its loopholes.’