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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.
Examples of gambit in a Sentence
Anna Maria Barry-Jester, ProPublica, 1 Mar. 2025
The actor said that his deliberately irritating gambit drew major laughs, to Reeves chagrin and Roberts' delight.
—Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 25 Feb. 2025
The road-blocking gambit is barely shown, and Collin’s character, fleshed out specifically for this moment, is forgotten for much of the sequence.
—Ben Kenigsberg, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2025
The far-right party voted on both pieces of legislation Merz proposed, helping push the non-binding bill over the line, a risky gambit that prompted hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets.
—Sebastian Shukla, CNN, 3 Feb. 2025
See All Example Sentences for gambit
Cite this Entry
“Gambit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gambit. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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