as in deception
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"
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Recent Examples of subterfuge
Within weeks, her parents discovered her subterfuge and engaged Scotland Yard to bring her home.
—
Rachel Syme, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025
Remon Haazen / Getty Images The prosecutor's statement didn't say what role, exactly, the man is thought to have played in the daylight heist, carried out with angle grinders, a freight lift and subterfuge, with robbers dressed as workers in bright vests.
—CBS News, 28 Nov. 2025
Do not let the subterfuge concern you.
—Judith Martin, Mercury News, 27 Nov. 2025
This week the New York Times posited that perhaps a dada-esque absurdity is the point, that youth culture, in an active quest to bewilder adults, adopts nonsensical humor in an effort towards subterfuge.
—Jeff Ihaza, Rolling Stone, 11 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for subterfuge
Recent Examples of Synonyms for subterfuge
Noun
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McCoy is charged with theft by deception, violation of oath of office, and three counts of false statements and writings.—
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Harper got fired for the aforementioned deception.—
Noun
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With season 4 rapidly approaching, now's the time to prepare for the treachery to come.—
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Instead of being killed, Ashur takes Spartacus’ life and is consequently rewarded for his treachery by the Roman Empire.—
Noun
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McCaffrey caught another fourth-quarter touchdown pass, on Jauan Jennings’ 29-yard trickery to open the fourth quarter for a brief lead.—
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Still, American bettors have found an easy work-around in the digital trickery of VPNs, or virtual private networks.—
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.—
Noun
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But even as skeptics label Strategy and the DAT model as a house of cards built on financial chicanery, others view them as early leaders in an emerging category of crypto banks.—
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The tale away from the playing field in recent years has been dizzying, one of soaring costs and debts, of quirks and chicanery unseen elsewhere.—
Noun
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Political gamesmanship This week, council members were accused of trying to replace their current coordinator, Laurent Saint-Cyr, who did not back attempts to get rid of Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.—
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Something more and something extra in no small part because of Stewart, whose senses of showmanship and gamesmanship animated and fueled the rivalry for so long.—
Noun
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There was much more to it than that, including some skullduggery along the way.—
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The music industry is a notoriously cutthroat business, rife with tales of backstabbing and skullduggery.—
Noun
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Cruz also pressed his Democratic colleagues to join a bipartisan request for the DOJ to turn over the evidentiary basis for the subpoenas, arguing transparency was necessary to assess whether the secrecy orders were justified.—
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For years, Maryland’s sprawling nonprofit sector has operated behind a veil of secrecy that state leaders praise publicly but struggle to explain under scrutiny.—
Cite this Entry
“Subterfuge.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/subterfuge. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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