Stories are full of tricksters: the fake doctor with a miracle tonic, the stranger who claims to be someone he is not, the schemer who plots in secret. This topic gives you exact words for each kind of trick and for the people who help.
Key idea
Tricksters: a charlatan fakes a skill; an impostor fakes who he is; a wily person is good at tricks. Tricks: a ruse, subterfuge, chicanery, a machination. Partners in a wrong: collusion, complicit, connive.
Several of these words carry Latin pictures inside them: subterfuge is fleeing in secret, collusion is playing together, and connive is shutting your eyes.
The ten words
Common mistake
machination is pronounced mak-uh-NAY-shun, with a hard k. collusion is secret cooperation; a collision is a crash.
| kind | words | the idea |
|---|---|---|
| the tricksters | charlatan, impostor, wily | fakes a skill; fakes who he is; crafty |
| the tricks | ruse, subterfuge, chicanery, machination | a trick; sneaking away; dishonest dealing; a secret plot |
| the partners | collusion, complicit, connive | secret teamwork; sharing the guilt; plotting or looking away |
Two pairs to keep straight: collusion (secret teamwork) is not collision (a crash), and a charlatan fakes a skill, while an impostor fakes an identity.