counterploy

C3O1U1N1T1E1R1P3L1O1Y4

noun

A clever trick used to counteract another clever trick.

OriginEnglish ploy ← Middle English counter- ← Anglo-Norman countre- →
Scrabble 18
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Meanings

nouncounterploy (plural counterploys)

plural counterploys

  1. A clever trick used to counteract another clever trick.

    So it goes. Bluff and counterbluff, ploy and counterploy.

    1971, William O. Johnson, Super Spectator and the Electric Lilliputians, page 114

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*ḱe?
  2. Proto-Indo-European*ḱóm
  3. Proto-Italic*kom
  4. Proto-Italic*kom-
  5. Proto-Italic*komteros
  6. Proto-Italic*komterād
  7. Latincontrā
  8. Old Frenchcontre-
  9. Anglo-Normancountre-
  10. Middle Englishcounter-
  11. Englishcounter-
  12. Englishploy
  13. Englishcounterploy

From counter- + ploy.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

counterploy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/counterploy

MLA

“counterploy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/counterploy. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “counterploy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/counterploy.

Source: counterploy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.