Bluff

How to spell bluff

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce bluff

What does bluff mean?

1. verbTo try to deceive someone by showing more confidence or strength than you really have.
2. nounAn attempt to deceive someone by a confident pretence, especially of strength or intention.
3. nounA steep cliff, headland or riverbank with a broad, flat face.
4. adjectiveDirect and hearty in a good-natured, slightly abrupt way.

Bluff in a sentence

• verb

  He tried to bluff his way past the security desk without a pass.

• noun

  The threat to resign was a bluff and nobody took it seriously.

• noun

  The cottage stood on a grassy bluff overlooking the river.

• adjective

  The foreman had a bluff honesty that the crew respected.

• verb

  She decided to bluff the buyer into thinking other offers had come in.

• noun

  His calm manner was pure bluff to hide how worried he felt.

Where does bluff come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

Bluff is a word with two strands that both seem to reach back into Dutch, which is why a single short spelling carries such different meanings. The adjective sense, meaning 'broad, flat and presenting a steep front', appeared in English nautical talk in the 1500s and is linked to the Dutch word blaf, meaning 'flat' or 'broad-faced'; from describing a ship's blunt bows it passed easily to describing a person of blunt, hearty manner and to a steep headland or riverbank with a flat face. The deceiving sense most likely comes from the Dutch verb bluffen, meaning 'to brag or boast', and a related noun for swagger. American card players of the early 1800s fastened this onto poker, where to bluff is to bet boldly on a weak hand, and from the gaming table it spread into ordinary speech for any confident pretence. The spelling stays simple throughout, a single short vowel closed by a doubled f, which is the usual English habit for a stressed one-syllable word ending in that sound (compare stuff, cuff and puff). Because all the senses are spelled and sounded identically, the trap is never the letters but choosing which meaning the context wants.

How the word is built

• bluff (a single root, probably from Dutch bluffen 'to brag' and blaf 'flat, broad'); no prefix or suffix