Ploy

//plɔɪ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A tactic, strategy, or scheme. countable, uncountable

    "Near-synonyms: ruse, stratagem"

  2. 2
    a maneuver in a game or conversation wordnet
  3. 3
    Sport; frolic. Scotland, UK, countable, dialectal, uncountable
  4. 4
    an opening remark intended to secure an advantage for the speaker wordnet
  5. 5
    Employment. countable, obsolete, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To form a column from a line of troops on some designated subdivision.

    "Troops drawn up so as to show an extended front, with slight depth, are said to be deployed; when the depth is considerable and the front comparatively small, they are said to be in ployed formation."

Synonyms

All synonyms
gambitmaneuverruseschemestratagemstratagem

Antonyms

All antonyms
deploy

Example

More examples

"The opposition party claimed that approving the bill by a vote late at night was a political ploy."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Possibly from a shortened form of employ or deploy. Or from earlier ploye, from Middle English, borrowed from Middle French ployer (compare modern plier), from Latin plicāre.

Etymology 2

Probably abbreviated from deploy.

Related phrases

Trollope ployratings ploy

More for "ploy"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.