chicanery

n.
Deception by trickery or sophistry.

Chicanery (deception, from an Old French word meaning "to quibble") is one of the accusations hurled at the US voting system by Frank Rich of The New York Times:

"The aging system of American-style democracy is beset in too many places by dry rot, cynicism, chicanery and fraud. It's due for an overhaul."

Link: Shouting Over the Din - New York Times

Posted November 6, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

noun

Lack of straightforwardness and honesty in action: craft, craftiness, deviousness, dishonesty, indirection, shadiness, shiftiness, slyness, sneakiness, trickery, trickiness, underhandedness. See honest/dishonest.

n

Definition: deception, trickery
Antonyms: forthrightness, honesty, truthfulness

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IN BRIEF: Legal trickery or false argument.

The governor was accused of chicanery when the law passed.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - kneb, lovtrækkeri

Nederlands (Dutch)
bedrog

Français (French)
n. - chicane

Deutsch (German)
n. - Rechtsverdrehung, Täuschungsmanöver

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - στρεψοδικία, δικολαβισμός, απατεωνιά

Italiano (Italian)
imbroglio, inganno, frode, impostura, truffa

Português (Portuguese)
n. - trapaça (f)

Русский (Russian)
крючкотворство

Español (Spanish)
n. - argucia, trapacería

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - lagvrängning, spetsfundighet

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
强词夺理, 欺骗, 狡辩

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 強詞奪理, 欺騙, 狡辯

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 속임수, 책략, 발뺌

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 言い抜け, 詭弁, ごまかし

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) احتيال, مخادعه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮הונאה, רמאות‬

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