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Don’t let the similarities of sound and general flavor between gambit and gamble trip you up; the two words are unrelated. Gambit first appeared in English in a 1656 chess handbook that was said to feature almost a hundred illustrated gambetts. Gambett traces back first to the Spanish word gambito, and before that to the Italian gambetto, from gamba meaning “leg.” Gambetto referred to the act of tripping someone, as in wrestling, in order to gain an advantage. In chess, gambit (or gambett, as it was once spelled) originally referred to a chess opening whereby the bishop’s pawn is intentionally sacrificed—or tripped—to gain an advantage in position. Gambit is now applied to many other chess openings, but after being pinned down for years, it also finally broke free of chess’s hold and is used generally to refer to any “move,” whether literal or rhetorical, done to get a leg up, so to speak. While such moves can be risky, gambit is not synonymous with gamble, which likely comes from Old English gamen, meaning “amusement, jest, pastime”—source too of game.
Synonyms
Examples of gambit in a Sentence
Nick Ashbourne, The Athletic, 7 Feb. 2025
Included in Trump’s China gambit was a decision to close a decades-old trade loophole that had allowed lower-cost items to skirt existing tariffs.
—Ryan Fonseca, Los Angeles Times, 6 Feb. 2025
That gambit fell through and Goggin went into the coffee shop business, operating four concessions in Bay Area Rapid Transit stations while seeking investors to expand the chain.
—Dan Walters, Orange County Register, 5 Feb. 2025
This gambit feels like a page pulled directly from Cobel’s playbook.
—Erin Qualey, Vulture, 17 Jan. 2025
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Dictionary Entries Near gambit
Cite this Entry
“Gambit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gambit. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
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