Word.ws English Dictionary

strategem

strategem is the misspelling of stratagem.

Meaning of stratagem

Noun

stratagem (countable and uncountable, plural stratagems)

  1. A tactic or artifice designed to gain the upper hand, especially one involving underhanded dealings or deception.
    • Near-synonyms: ploy, ruse
    Synonyms:
    ploy, ruse
  2. Specifically, such a tactic or artifice in military operation.
    • His fiery eies are fixt vpon the earth.
      As if he now deuiſ’d some Stratageme:
      Or meant to pierce Auernus darkſome vauts.
      To pull the triple headed dog from hell.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  3. (uncountable) Military deception or artifice.
  4. (uncountable) Cunning and artifice in general.
  5. (obsolete) A violent deed.

Questions about strategem

What is strategem the misspelling of?
Strategem is the misspelling of stratagem.

Words near strategem in the dictionary

  1. stratarchical
  2. stratarchies
  3. stratarchy
  4. stratas
  5. Strate
  6. strategem
  7. strategery
  8. strategetic
  9. strategetical
  10. strategetically
  11. strategetics

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: strategem (page history and authors); stratagem (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.

Last updated:

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