collusion
kuh-LOO-zhunnounMeaning secret teamwork for a dishonest purpose
Memory hook COL + LUD: PLAYING TOGETHER in secret. Two players on rival teams secretly agree who will win and split the prize; their dishonest teamwork is collusion.
The two bakeries were caught in collusion, secretly agreeing to raise their prices on the same day.
In context The referee’s strange calls were no accident; an inquiry found collusion between him and a coach who had promised him part of the prize money.
Similar connivance, complicity, conspiracy, secret cooperation
From Latin collusio, from colludere, “to play together, to be in secret league”: com- (together) + ludere (to play).