gambit

• gambett (obsolete)

Borrowed from Italian gambetto (“act of tripping; gambit”), from gamba (“leg”) + -etto (diminutive suffix). First attested in 1656.^[1]

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡæmbɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmbɪt

gambit (plural gambits)

1. (chess) An opening in chess in which material is sacrificed to gain an advantage.

   Her clever gambit gave her an advantage.

2. Any ploy or stratagem.

   Their promise to lower taxes is clearly an election-year gambit.

   • 2009, Steven Rosefielde, Red Holocaust, page 240:

     The Red Holocaust is best interpreted in this light as the bitter fruit of an^[sic] utopian gambit that was socially misengineered into a dystopic nightmare by despots in humanitarian disguise.

   • 2023 June 29, City AM, London, page 18, column 2:

     An opening sequence, featuring a de-aged Ford playing a younger Indy, is a bold and nostalgic gambit, offering a glimpse of what you've missed.

3. A remark intended to open a conversation.

Internationalisms:

• → Arabic: غَامْبِت (ḡāmbit)
• → Hawaiian: gamabita
• → Japanese: ギャンビット (gyanbitto)

gambit (third-person singular simple present gambits, present participle gambiting, simple past and past participle gambited)

1. (chess, transitive) To sacrifice (a pawn or minor piece) to gain an advantage.

From Italian gambetto (“act of tripping; gambit”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡɑ̃.bit/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Somain)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Agen)):

  (file)

gambit m (plural gambits)

1. gambit

• “gambit”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Borrowed from English gambit, from Italian gambetto, from gamba, from Late Latin gamba, from Ancient Greek καμπή (kampḗ), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂emp- (“to bend, curve”) (whence also Polish kępina, Latin campus), from *kh₂em-.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡam.bit/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ambit
• Syllabification: gam‧bit

gambit m inan

1. (chess) gambit (chess move)
2. gambit (risky move)

   Synonym: ryzyko

• “gambit”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[1] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “gambit”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[2] (in Polish)

Borrowed from French gambit.

gambit n (plural gambituri)

1. gambit

• IPA^(key): /ɡambit/, [ˈɡambit]
• Rhymes: -ambit
• Hyphenation: gam‧bit

gambit m inan

1. (chess) gambit

• “gambit”, in Slovníkový portál Jazykovedného ústavu Ľ. Štúra SAV [Dictionary portal of the Ľ. Štúr Institute of Linguistics, Slovak Academy of Science] (in Slovak), https://slovnik.juls.savba.sk, 2003–2026