Word.ws English Dictionary

Galileo gambit

Galileo gambit noun: purposeful attraction of criticism or ridicule for the purpose of portraying one's argument as oppressed and therefore correct. Also, the argument that one is correct due to such opposition.

Noun

Galileo gambit (plural Galileo gambits)

  1. Purposeful attraction of criticism or ridicule for the purpose of portraying one's argument as oppressed and therefore correct. Also, the argument that one is correct due to such opposition.
    • Near-synonym: Galileo fallacy
    • That old liar pulled a Galileo gambit and made sure everyone would hate him so he could claim he was just a persecuted free thinker.
    Synonyms:
    Galileo fallacy

Synonyms of Galileo gambit

Forms of Galileo gambit

pluralGalileo gambits

Origin of Galileo gambit

Compound of Galileo + gambit (“stratagem, tactic”). Named after Galileo Galilei, who was persecuted by the Church for his beliefs.

Questions about Galileo gambit

What does Galileo gambit mean?
Galileo gambit means purposeful attraction of criticism or ridicule for the purpose of portraying one's argument as oppressed and therefore correct. Also, the argument that one is correct due to such opposition.
What part of speech is Galileo gambit?
Galileo gambit is a noun.
What is the plural of Galileo gambit?
The plural of Galileo gambit is Galileo gambits.

Words near Galileo gambit in the dictionary

  1. galilees
  2. Galileian
  3. galileiite
  4. galileo
  5. Galileo fallacy
  6. Galileo gambit
  7. Galileo thermometer
  8. Galileo thermometers
  9. Galileo's paradox
  10. galileon
  11. galileons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Galileo gambit (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “Galileo gambit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/galileo_gambit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.