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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
Lance Eliot, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2025
As unpopular as the prince may be in Britain, that could make the king's already risky gambit even more dangerous.
—Gordon G. Chang, Newsweek, 3 Mar. 2025
But the opening gambit by the United States and Russia in Saudi Arabia last week threw into doubt the value of those strategic moves against the invader.
—Kevin Shalvey, ABC News, 24 Feb. 2025
So far, his gambit appears to be working; a young generation of Saudis, fed up with the country’s outdated social restrictions, appreciate new measures to lift the ban on women driving, curb the power of the religious police, and allow men and women to mix in public.
—Marwan Muasher, Foreign Affairs, 21 Feb. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Gambit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gambit. Accessed 2 Apr. 2025.
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