Meanings
plural three-card montes
- uncountableusuallyA confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a sum of money that they can find the money card, for example the queen of hearts, among three face-down playing cards.
A starry 20th-anniversary revival of “Topdog/Underdog,” her Pulitzer Prize-winning fable about two brothers, three-card monte and one troubling inheritance, is in previews on Broadway.
2022 October 5, Michael Paulson, “Suzan-Lori Parks Is on Broadway, Off Broadway and Everywhere Else”, in The New York TimesSynonyms: find the lady, follow the bee, follow the lady, menage-a-card, three-card marney, three-card trick, three-way, three-card shuffle
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA confidence game in which the victim, or mark, is tricked into betting a sum of money that they can find the money card, for example the queen of hearts, among three face-down playing cards.
More synonyms by meaning
nouna gambling card game of Spanish origin; 3 cards are dealt face up and players bet that one of them will be matched before the others as the cards are dealt from the pack one at a time
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Translations
French bonneteau
- bonneteauconfidence trick
German Kümmelblättchen
- Kümmelblättchenconfidence trick
Polish trzy karty, trzy kubki
- trzy kartyconfidence trick
- trzy kubkiconfidence trick
- benkielconfidence trick
Cite this entry
three-card monte. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/three-card%20monte
“three-card monte.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/three-card%20monte. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “three-card monte,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/three-card%20monte.
Source: three-card monte on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.