Synonym Study

• Wile , often used in the plural, implies the use of allurements or beguilement to ensnare used all his wiles and cunning to close the deal
• Artifice stresses inventiveness or ingenuity in the contrivance of an expedient, trick, etc. artifices employed to circumvent the tax laws
• Maneuver , while specifically applicable to military tactics, in general use suggests the shrewd manipulation of persons or situations to suit one's purposes a political maneuver
• A stratagem is a more or less complicated ruse, by means of which one attempts to outwit or entrap an enemy or antagonist military stratagems
• Ruse applies to that which is contrived as a blind for one's real intentions or for the truth her apparent illness was merely a ruse to gain time
• Trick is the common word for an action or device in which ingenuity and cunning are used to outwit others and implies deception either for fraudulent purposes or as a prank