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# ploy

«ploy» in Mova's school dictionary: **A clever trick or plan used to get an advantage or to…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (a ploy, ploys)

### meaning for a pupil

A clever trick or plan used to get an advantage or to make someone do something. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In stories, games and advertising, a ploy is a sneaky plan: a "free gift" can be a ploy to make you buy more. In sport, a ploy is a tactic to fool the other side. Media literacy lessons teach children to spot marketing ploys.

### examples

- The "free" toy was a ploy to get us to buy more cereal. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/#x1)
- Pretending to be ill was a ploy to miss the test. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/#x2)
- The team used a clever ploy to win the ball. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/#x3)
- The fox's ploy was to flatter the crow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/#x4)
- Adverts use ploys to make you want things. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/#x5)
- His ploy didn't work; Mum saw through it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/#x6)

### note

Countable. Short, informal-neutral word. Similar: trick, tactic, scheme. In shop maths, a "buy 3 for the price of 2" offer only saves money if you actually need 3.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «ploy» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/ploy/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.