as in prank
an act that is used to fool someone
His act was just a clever ruse to get me to go out with him.
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Recent Examples of ruse
After Sam’s ruse is exposed during lunch with Diane and Reed, Diane’s is as well.
—
Randall Colburn, EW.com, 21 May 2025
Barriers lifted in advance, Mellor and his French Resistance passengers hurtled through at 80mph leaving guards little chance of spotting the night-time ruse.
—Iain MacAuley, Forbes.com, 5 June 2025
The ruse, Smith suggested in her memoir, was employed successfully on at least one occasion.
—Laurie Gwen Shapiro, New Yorker, 2 June 2025
Is this a theatrical ruse or a murder plot in process?
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for ruse
Randall Colburn, EW.com, 21 May 2025
Barriers lifted in advance, Mellor and his French Resistance passengers hurtled through at 80mph leaving guards little chance of spotting the night-time ruse.
—Iain MacAuley, Forbes.com, 5 June 2025
The ruse, Smith suggested in her memoir, was employed successfully on at least one occasion.
—Laurie Gwen Shapiro, New Yorker, 2 June 2025
Is this a theatrical ruse or a murder plot in process?
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for ruse
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ruse
Noun
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The marijuana photos that appeared this weekend when people googled Taylor Police Department were likely a prank that, for a moment, had some in the community snickering, including the deputy chief.—
Frank Witsil,
Freep.com,
14 July 2025
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What starts as a simple favor to keep her great-niece turns into a wild Halloween night filled with jump scares and pranks — but as usual, nothing frightens her more than bad manners and disrespect. Boo 2!—
Jane LaCroix,
People.com,
13 July 2025
Noun
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And how could Faas have knowingly perpetrated such deception?—
Gary Knight,
Rolling Stone,
1 Aug. 2025
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This campaign of deception from Big Oil and the plastics industry underscores why California’s lawsuit against Exxon is so vital.—
Chelsea Linsley,
Mercury News,
29 July 2025
Noun
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From fashion tips and tricks to tween and teen hair and nails, our back-to-school style guide has a little bit of everything.—
Kimberly Zapata,
Parents,
29 July 2025
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Over the years, Johnson has learned some tricks to help acquaint himself with new colleagues, from researching the background of management or coaches or looking up teammates on Madden to know a bit about their game.—
Ben Morse,
CNN Money,
28 July 2025
Noun
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That phonetic play alone already signals one of the project’s theoretical subterfuges: that of exploring the most advanced conditions of the subject’s annihilation as a foundational precondition for artistic authority.—
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh,
Artforum,
1 June 2025
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An especially Jewish theme in the seventeenth century was not only the necessity but the dignity of subterfuge; to have lived in the shadows of another people’s empire had a nobility of its own, captured in this exquisite and ambivalent image.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
19 July 2025
Noun
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For people like Soriano, however, the elections are about more than political stratagem and determining which family holds the most nominal power.—
Chad de Guzman,
Time,
13 May 2025
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The scene is straight out of a stratagem by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Bertolucci’s mentor), but Palud takes it literally without applying comparable ideological critique to the rest of her film.—
Armond White,
National Review,
28 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ruse.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ruse. Accessed 6 Aug. 2025.
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