Synonyms for skulduggery
Most common
dishonesty trickery hocus-pocus hanky-panky ruse subterfuge shenanigans
Synonyms by meaning
Noun
1. Trickery — dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour
trickery, dishonesty, hanky-panky, hocus-pocus, slickness, under-handedness, jiggery-pokery, unscrupulousness, thugduggery
2. Subterfuge — A devious device or trick
Other
Definitions
- n. 1
A devious device or trick.
- n. 2
Dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour.
Related words
- Word family
- skulduggerer skulduggerist
- Other spellings
- sculduggery scullduggery skullduggery US
Forms
- Plural
- skulduggeries → trickeries, dishonesties, hanky-pankies, hocus-pocuses…
Example sentences
- dishonesty He denounced all forms of dishonesty in government.
- trickery The ones who lack courage, exceed in trickery.
- ruse All the sweet talk was just a ruse to get her into bed.
- subterfuge I apologize for the subterfuge.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| skulduggery | steady | |
| dishonesty | steady | |
| trickery | rising | |
| ruse | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- ruse1
- 8 letters
- trickery3, artifice3
- 9 letters
- stratagem3, chicanery4, slickness
- 10 letters
- dishonesty4, subterfuge3
- 11 letters
- shenanigans4, thugduggery
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (trickery3 = 3 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- entourloupe