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An abortive attempt or action is cut short before it is finished; hence, it is unsuccessful.
When you employ artifice, you use clever tricks and cunning to deceive someone.
When you describe someone as astute, you think they quickly understand situations or behavior and use it to their advantage.
A canard is a piece of news or information that is false; it is deliberately spread either to harm someone or as a hoax.
Candor is the quality of being honest and open in speech or action.
If you employ chicanery, you are devising and carrying out clever plans and trickery to cheat and deceive people.
Something that is clandestine is hidden or kept a secret, often because it is illegal.
If you collude with people, you work secretly with them to do something dishonest.
Complicity is the involvement in or knowledge of a situation that is illegal or bad.
One can also connive at a wrongdoing by others by not taking action against it or not reporting it to authorities.
Covert activities or situations are secret and hidden.
Someone who is disingenuous is not straightforward or is dishonest in what they say or do.
To divulge something is to reveal information that was once private or secret.
When you dupe another person, you trick them into believing something that is not true.
If you accuse someone of duplicity, you think that they are dishonest and are intending to trick you.
A feint is the act of pretending to make a movement in one direction while actually moving in the other, especially to trick an opponent; a feint can also be a deceptive act meant to turn attention away from one’s true purpose.
A gambit is something that you say or do in order to gain an advantage in a given situation or game.
To gerrymander a voting district is to change its physical boundaries in order to include more people who vote in a particular way.
People who are ingenuous are excessively trusting and believe almost everything that people tell them, especially because they have not had much life experience.
Something that is insidious is dangerous because it seems harmless or not important; nevertheless, over time it gradually develops the capacity to cause harm and damage.
Something that is latent, such as an undiscovered talent or undiagnosed disease, exists but is not active or has not developed at the moment—it may develop or become active in the future.
An overt act is not hidden or secret but is done in an open and public way.
A patent situation is one that is wide open and unconcealed; it is both evident and obvious.
Probity is very moral and honest behavior.
Propriety is behaving in a socially acceptable and appropriate way.
A scrupulous person takes great care to do everything in an extremely honest, conscientious, and fair manner.
Scurrilous accusations, stories, or articles contain untrue, unkind, and unfair statements about someone that could spoil that person’s reputation.
Sophistry is the clever use of arguments that seem correct but are in fact unsound and misleading, used with the intent to deceive people.
A stratagem is a clever trick or deception that is used to fool someone.
If you employ subterfuge, you use a secret plan or action to get what you want by outwardly doing one thing that cleverly hides your true intentions.
A surreptitious deed is done secretly to avoid bringing any attention to it.
The veracity of something is its truthfulness.
Wiles are clever tricks or cunning schemes that are used to persuade someone to do what you want.
Noun
machination
mak-uh-NAY-shuhn
Context
Maeve sought to control others in her social circle with a clever system of machination that included power plays and other scheming plots. She spread rumors and used machination or dishonest strategic actions to convince people that her invented stories were true. Her cruel machinations or secretive plans were soon exposed when those around her realized painfully that Maeve’s kindness was only a show to trick them all.
Machine Fascination Hackers use clever machinations to control others through hacking into their computer machines; this fascination for machine destruction is a form of machination that makes us all suffer.
Examples
The move was hardly surprising given that Quinn always works the refs, but he was trumped Sunday by the machination of Islanders general manager Mike Milbury.
—
Sports Illustrated
Mr. Bush, who made two private appearances before Republican groups here this morning in a one-day stopover in Michigan, complained,' every time I come to Michigan, there is some new machination of the rules.
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The New York Times
Mr. Young, at one point, even voiced suspicions that Mr. Obama’s campaign was financed by Republicans — the type of machination, he said, that was not outside the realm of his experience.
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The New York Times
Doing this for every action of government, military, and corporations might actually lead to a society that was now a machination of hidden power, backroom pay-offs, and basic dishonesty and greed!
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The Washington Post
Machination is the “act of planning against” or “tricking” someone.
Word Theater
Aladdin Will Jafar's machinations make him sultan?
The panel shows a small video clip of either the word in actual use or a scene that represents the meaning of a word. This not only breaks up the monotony of studying words but also provides another avenue to strengthen word meaning. Enjoy!
