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Don’t let the similarities of sound and general flavor between gambit and gamble trip you up; the two words are unrelated. Gambit first appeared in English in a 1656 chess handbook that was said to feature almost a hundred illustrated gambetts. Gambett traces back first to the Spanish word gambito, and before that to the Italian gambetto, from gamba meaning “leg.” Gambetto referred to the act of tripping someone, as in wrestling, in order to gain an advantage. In chess, gambit (or gambett, as it was once spelled) originally referred to a chess opening whereby the bishop’s pawn is intentionally sacrificed—or tripped—to gain an advantage in position. Gambit is now applied to many other chess openings, but after being pinned down for years, it also finally broke free of chess’s hold and is used generally to refer to any “move,” whether literal or rhetorical, done to get a leg up, so to speak. While such moves can be risky, gambit is not synonymous with gamble, which likely comes from Old English gamen, meaning “amusement, jest, pastime”—source too of game.
Examples of gambit in a Sentence
Todd Boss, Forbes.com, 20 May 2025
Kaplan worked in a similar role for PepsiCo’s beverage division, and often tested gambits that married the company’s popular sodas to specific programs and content.
—Brian Steinberg, Variety, 20 May 2025
The outside world, meanwhile, is about to boil over with its myriad lockdown frustrations, and, in a very bold gambit, Aster uses the real-life killing of George Floyd as the catalyst that brings bitter chaos to the middle of nowhere.
—Damon Wise, Deadline, 16 May 2025
So at least a few board members appointed by the mayor will need to stand up to Harden’s extreme pressure tactics and stay true to their belief that a schools boss should possess the appropriate credentials to keep the mayor’s gambit from succeeding.
—The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 7 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for gambit
Cite this Entry
“Gambit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gambit. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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