1
as in magic
the art or skill of performing tricks or illusions for entertainment
the illusionist's show is an entertaining blend of legerdemain and over-the-top showmanship
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2
as in deception
the use of clever underhanded actions to achieve an end
the reduction of the deficit is due in part to financial legerdemain that masks the true costs of running the government
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Recent Examples of legerdemain
Serious people should know what an older version of antisemitic denialism was all about: a steady stream of factual nitpicks, logical inversions and rhetorical legerdemain meant to obfuscate and deny the greatest crime in history.
—
Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 8 Mar. 2024
Flashbacks disclose Silva and Jack’s young and crazy past through a bit of cinematic legerdemain: A drunken, dissolute barrier-busting orgy with whores and wine that reenacts a bawdy scene from Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch.
—Armond White, National Review, 27 Oct. 2023
But this moment—and the final passage of the IRA itself—shows how the Senate’s rules have devolved the legislative process into an inscrutable whirligig of procedural legerdemain.
—Matt Ford, The New Republic, 9 Aug. 2022
His team is developing the bioreactor that performs the legerdemain.
—IEEE Spectrum, 22 May 2018
See all Example Sentences for legerdemain 
Bret Stephens, The Mercury News, 8 Mar. 2024
Flashbacks disclose Silva and Jack’s young and crazy past through a bit of cinematic legerdemain: A drunken, dissolute barrier-busting orgy with whores and wine that reenacts a bawdy scene from Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch.
—Armond White, National Review, 27 Oct. 2023
But this moment—and the final passage of the IRA itself—shows how the Senate’s rules have devolved the legislative process into an inscrutable whirligig of procedural legerdemain.
—Matt Ford, The New Republic, 9 Aug. 2022
His team is developing the bioreactor that performs the legerdemain.
—IEEE Spectrum, 22 May 2018
See all Example Sentences for legerdemain
Recent Examples of Synonyms for legerdemain
Noun
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Quantum magic The process begins by using regular computers to simplify a problem to be solved using quantum hardware.—
John Timmer,
Ars Technica,
24 Jan. 2025
-
Maybe Beane could work some contract magic for a big-ticket free agent, fans hoped.—
Tim Graham,
The Athletic,
24 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Watch on Deadline In the wake of his father’s disappearance at sea, Kojo, a young Ghanaian is drawn into a world of street gang and deception.—
Melanie Goodfellow,
Deadline,
14 Jan. 2025
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Directed by Su Biao, the comedy about a woman entangled in financial deception has remained a steady performer since its release on Dec. 31.—
Naman Ramachandran,
Variety,
13 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Calling it his novel is a bit of authorial trickery: Griffin Hurt doesn’t exist.—
Stuart Miller,
Orange County Register,
16 Jan. 2025
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Kari Ferrell’s memoir is a zippy, intimate account of low-level trickery before the era of scams fully erupted.—
Sophie Gilbert,
The Atlantic,
15 Jan. 2025
Noun
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There is a precedent for such scientific subterfuge.—
Henry A. Kissinger,
Foreign Affairs,
18 Nov. 2024
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In an era rife with conspiracy theories and subterfuge, how much of those forces are products of our own doing, perhaps our imagining?—
Dana Feldman,
Forbes,
30 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Welcome back for another season full of [Alan Cumming voice] deception, backstabbing and treachery!—
Nick Caruso,
TVLine,
9 Jan. 2025
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Yet Milady and her treachery have for nearly 200 years always stood out.—
Stephen Schaefer,
Boston Herald,
15 Apr. 2024
Noun
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There’s still a lot of baseball chicanery to take place over the next few months, though.—
Grant Brisbee,
The Athletic,
18 July 2024
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The eternal fight for liberty — slaves into gladiators, gladiators into free men — calls for courage and purpose beyond Lucius’s nightmarish expectations, uncovering the treachery and chicanery of Roman politics.—
Armond White,
National Review,
6 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Obviously, such a system is rife with uncertainty, and the history of the process is full of skulduggery, both on the club and player side.—
Tony Blengino,
Forbes,
13 Jan. 2025
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Climax became the first ever vegan cheesemaker to win a prestigious Good Food award—though dairy complaints caused the prize to be rescinded at the last minute, with shades of the protectionist, legal skulduggery faced by non-dairy milk products.—
Andrew Rosenblum,
Popular Science,
26 Dec. 2024
Noun
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There’s an unapologetic cunning at the heart of this series, and a mercurial spirit that’s as slippery as blood on an Italian marble floor.—
Roxana Hadadi,
Vulture,
4 Apr. 2024
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Just as Nordlinger shows that the peacemakers and Nobel laureates whose work holds up best are those who brought specific conflicts to an end, the organizations in Bob's account that get the most done are those that pursue limited goals with cunning and patience.—
Walter Russell Mead,
Foreign Affairs,
1 Nov. 2012
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Cite this Entry
“Legerdemain.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/legerdemain. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.
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