Ploy
Ploy noun - A clever often underhanded means to achieve an end.
Usage example: asking me to take her shopping turned out to be a ploy to get me to the surprise party
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Synonyms for Ploy
Stratagem is a synonym for ploy in trick topic. In some cases you can use "Stratagem" instead a noun "Ploy", when it comes to topics like artifice, game, honest, stunt. popular alternative
Nearby Word: ployed
Stratagem
Stratagem noun - A clever often underhanded means to achieve an end.
Usage example: tried various stratagems to get the cat into the carrier, but the feisty feline was wise to them all
Mutual synonyms
How words are described
Both words in one sentence
- The Doctor Who episode "The Sontaran Stratagem" starts with a journalist being killed by his own car when its emissions reduction system (part of a planet-conquering ploy by the eponymous Sontarans) takes over.
Source: Murder by Remote Control Vehicle
Cite this Source
Stratagem and Ploy. (2016). Retrieved 2026, July 21, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/ploy/stratagem
Ploy & Stratagem. N.p., 2016. Web. 21 Jul. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/ploy/stratagem>.
Stratagem or Ploy. 2016. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/ploy/stratagem.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "ploy" and "stratagem" have occurred on timeline