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trick

noun · verb · adjective

Simple meaning

A single element of a magician's act.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

trik
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtɹɪk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.

  2. A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.

  3. Mischievous or annoying behavior; a prank.

  4. An effective, clever or quick way of doing something.

  5. An entertaining difficult physical action.

  6. A knot, braid, or plait of hair.

verb

  1. transitive

    To fool; to cause to believe something untrue; to deceive.

  2. To engage in prostitution or casual sex.

  3. To dress; to decorate; to adorn fantastically; often followed by up, off, or out.

adjective

  1. Defective or unreliable.

  2. chiefly usslang

    Stylish or cool.

  3. Involving trickery or deception.

  4. Able to perform tricks.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A single element of a magician's (or any variety entertainer's) act; a magic trick.

Used this way, trick is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • conjuring trick , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use trick

  • “He played a trick on me.”noun
  • “That offer was a dirty trick.”noun
  • “We tricked the teacher into thinking that class would be cancelled next week.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

dirty tricksome trickfirst tricknew trick

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • trick outverbCompound term

    Put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive.

  • trick or treatnounCompound term

    A request by children on Halloween.

  • trick upverbCompound term

    Put on special clothes to appear particularly appealing and attractive.

  • dirty tricksnounCompound term

    Underhand commercial or political behavior designed to discredit an opponent.

  • hat tricknounCompound term

    Three consecutive scores by one player or three scores in one game (as in cricket or ice hockey etc.).

  • magic tricknounCompound term

    An illusory feat.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

noun

Sense: something designed to fool or dupe or outsmart

illusionconjuring trickRaremagic

verb

Sense: to fool

fobfoxanticArchaic

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.