From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishstratagemstrat‧a‧gem /ˈstrætədʒəm/ noun [countable] formalTRICK/DECEIVE a trick or plan to deceive an enemy or gain an advantage SYN ploy
Examples from the Corpus
stratagem• A stratagem I learnt early in my life was to hoard every emblem of success and destroy all evidence of failure.• As soon as things get tough our enemies have a clever stratagem.• His stratagem was to cross Riverside Drive and enter the first building, as if he lived there.• Actually, neither stratagem is likely to do much.• As a partial solution, Combined Fleet decided to resort to a special stratagem that had already worked successfully once before.• They fell for the stratagem and the plot was resumed.• A summary of acute therapeutic stratagems is provided in Table 3-4.Origin stratagem (1400-1500) Italian stratagemma, from Latin, from Greek stratagema, from stratagein “to lead an army”, from strategos “general”, from stratos “army” + agein “to lead” 