bluffing 1 of 2

adjective

as in pretending

Related Words

Relevance

Dissimilar Words

bluffing

2 of 2

verb

present participle of bluff
1
as in fooling
to cause to believe what is untrue I bluffed the interviewer into believing that I could really speak French and thus would be the perfect person to serve in the newspaper's Paris bureau

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in assuming
to present a false appearance of the basketball player bluffed a shot, then passed instead

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of bluffing
Verb
The plan for the stadium could still collapse; the Bears’ billionaire owners could be bluffing to secure an Arlington Heights deal. — Gretchen Kalwinski, Chicago Tribune, 12 June 2026 If the prover is bluffing, the verifier will almost certainly find a flaw in the coloring after enough guesses. — Ben Brubaker, Quanta Magazine, 11 May 2026 That could mean sneaking into hospitals, or bluffing their way into funerals. — Brendan Ruberry, semafor.com, 29 Mar. 2026 And sometimes bluffing goes beyond saving face. — Literary Hub, 2 Mar. 2026 But some politicians and economists say the billionaires are largely bluffing. — Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Jan. 2026 Cue a total lockdown of the hospital as everyone tries to figure out if the guy was bluffing, all while putting out the fires (and tending to the victims) left by the explosion. — Will Harris, Entertainment Weekly, 7 Jan. 2026 After successfully bluffing his way into the house, Tom fumbles an attempt to hide his reasons for being there, leading Robbie to take him hostage. — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2025 But Zelensky said Wednesday that the Russian leader was bluffing. — Christian Edwards, CNN Money, 13 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for bluffing
  1. pretending
  2. fooling
  3. assuming
  4. duplicitous
  5. tricking
  6. simulating
  7. hypocritical
  8. deceiving
Adjective
  • There can be no more pretending, briefing or hiding.
    — Harry De Cosemo, Forbes.com, 20 Aug. 2025
Definition of pretending
Verb
  • Throughout all the commotion, Romelu Lukaku acted as decoy, holding on to the ball, fooling everyone, including the TV producer, who pulled up a graphic showing his recent penalty record.
    — Geir Jordet, New York Times, 15 July 2026
  • Speaking on Harvard Business School’s The Founder Mindset podcast, hosted by senior lecturer and serial entrepreneur Reza Satchu, the Shark Tank investor argued that anyone trying to balance a young company against the rest of their life is fooling themselves.
    — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 17 June 2026
Definition of fooling
Verb
  • The advice about not following your kids is often about not abandoning your life and support systems and assuming your kids will fill in the gaps.
    — R. Eric Thomas, Mercury News, 31 July 2026
  • Arguably the subsequent doubling was due to a combination of surging Chinese demand and momentum trading, but even assuming that, the market tightness after the war ended kept prices on a long upward trajectory, not a rocket launch.
    — Michael Lynch, Forbes.com, 31 July 2026
Definition of assuming
Adjective
  • The more beautiful a woman, the more likely her exterior attributes displayed a duplicitous nature.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 23 July 2026
  • Even actors whose roles have limited scope, like Zendaya, Nyong’o, Hawkins and Mia Goth as Penelope’s duplicitous maid, register as vital presences.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 15 July 2026
Definition of duplicitous
Verb
  • Football is all about engaño (trickery) — looking one way and passing the other, feinting to go left and swiftly moving right, manipulating the opposition and tricking them to open up those little spaces.
    — Xavi, New York Times, 19 July 2026
  • What’s far more eloquent is the episode with the witch Circe (a terrific Samantha Morton), whose habit of tricking and transforming men into animals is rendered in evocatively physical, body-horror-esque imagery.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 15 July 2026
Definition of tricking
Verb
  • It was supposed to relight its engines for a landing burn off the coast of Texas, simulating maneuvers required to return the booster back to the launch pad for recovery and reuse.
    — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 25 July 2026
  • In their new study, the HZDR team says the effect could become especially important for adiabatic quantum computers, a class of machines widely studied for solving optimization problems, searching massive datasets, and simulating molecules.
    — Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 25 July 2026
Definition of simulating
Adjective
  • Amendments placed on the ballot by lawmakers would still need only a statewide majority — a distinction critics call hypocritical.
    — Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 27 July 2026
  • The public is equally free to find the position ridiculous and hypocritical, and choose to support other leagues that better represent their feelings.
    — Dan Zaksheske OutKick, FOXNews.com, 26 July 2026
Definition of hypocritical
Verb
  • All the wig and makeup work put into deceiving their people isn’t needed in the first place.
    — Michael Ashley, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
  • Those figures, though, are a bit deceiving; infant and childhood mortality dragged them down dramatically.
    — Adam Cohen, Oklahoman, 30 June 2026
Definition of deceiving

Browse Nearby Words

bluffers
bluffing
bluffly
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Bluffing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/bluffing. Accessed 1 Aug. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on bluffing

Nglish: Translation of bluffing for Spanish Speakers

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of spindrift

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

Your vs. You're: How to Use Them Correctly
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Dutch Treat and French Leave: Eight Place-Based Compounds

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Longest Long Words List

The Words of the Week - Jul. 31

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)
See More

Popular

See More

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words

Dutch Treat and French Leave: Eight Place-Based Compounds

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
asap street sign
Figure Out These Acronyms ASAP You don't have to be a NASA engineer to get these...
See All