ISEE/SSAT Vocabulary BuilderWordsCchicanery
ISEE/SSAThard
chicanery
Meaning: clever but dishonest trickery, especially in argument, business, politics, or law
chicanery in a sentence
How chicanery is used in real sentences:
The committee uncovered chicanery in the bidding process after several numbers failed to match the records.
The contract looked simple, but its fine print was filled with chicanery meant to confuse customers.
“Hale suspected chicanery in this distortion: Voss had converted a demand for accounting into evidence of conspiracy.”
— from the passage The Officers' Correspondence
“Those tests exposed chicanery in the certification report: a narrow graph concealed impurity peaks by cropping the horizontal axis.”
— from the passage The Returning Hinge
“Behind his courtesy lay chicanery: the tax decree had been dated weeks earlier than it was written, making the violation appear to precede the treaty.”
— from the passage The Varen Customs Crisis
Also read it in: The Empty Chair
Synonyms for chicanery
Other words for chicanery — trickery, deception, fraud and subterfuge — carry the same meaning.
- trickery
- deception
- fraud
- subterfuge
Antonyms of chicanery
Words that mean the opposite of chicanery:
- honesty
- fairness
- candor
Where it comes from
From French chicaner 'to quibble, wrangle in law'.
Memory hook
Chicanery sounds like a slick trick hidden inside a technicality.