gambit

• gambett (obsolete)

From Italian gambetto (“act of tripping; gambit”), from Italian gamba (“leg”), from Late Latin gamba.

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æmbɪt

gambit (plural gambits)

1. (chess) An opening in chess in which a minor piece or a pawn 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.

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.

• Audio:

  (file)

gambit m (plural gambits)

1. gambit

• → Russian: гамбит (gambit)
  • → Georgian: გამბიტი (gambiṭi)
  • → Kazakh: гамбит (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, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• gambit in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from French gambit.

gambit n (plural gambituri)

1. gambit

• IPA^(key): [ˈɡambit]

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, 2003–2025