Other forms: stratagems
A stratagem is a clever scheme for outwitting an opponent. A clever stratagem, resort to a stratagem, the stratagem worked.
It implies deception rather than mere planning, which is what separates it from a strategy. Both come from the Greek word for a general, and a stratagem was originally a trick of generalship.
1nounstratagemA clever scheme for outwitting an opponent.
“The general's stratagem was to pretend to retreat and then attack from behind.”
stratagem is a scheme.
Greek strategema means a piece of generalship, from strategos, a general.
Proto-Indo-European
*sterh₃-
Ancient Greek
στρατήγημα — the act of a general, a piece of generalship
Latin
strategema
Old French
stratageme
Middle English
stratageme
English, today
stratagem
Built from
From Middle English stratageme, from Old French stratageme, from Latin strategema, from Ancient Greek στρατήγημα (“the act of a general, a piece of generalship”), from στρατηγέω (“to be a general, command an army”), from στρατηγός (“a general, the leader or commander of an army”). See strategy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA