Trick

How to spell trick

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce trick

What does trick mean?

1. nounA cunning act intended to deceive, or a clever skill or feat.
2. verbTo deceive or cheat someone by a cunning act.

Trick in a sentence

• noun

  The salesman used a clever trick to hide the extra fees.

• verb

  The scammers tried to trick elderly customers into sharing their passwords.

• noun

  She taught the dog a new trick over the weekend.

• verb

  Do not let the low price trick you into ignoring the poor reviews.

Where does trick come from?

Language of origin: French

The word arrived in English in the 1400s from Old North French (the Norman dialect) trique, a noun meaning a deceit or a cunning device, paired with the verb trikier meaning to deceive or to beguile. Behind that lies the Latin tricae, which literally meant 'trifles', 'tangles', or 'troublesome nonsense', and the related verb tricari, 'to behave evasively' or 'to make difficulties'. The sense slid from petty, annoying complications toward deliberate cleverness and deception, so that a 'trick' became both a sly ruse and, more playfully, a skilful feat or knack. The same Latin root gave English 'intricate', literally something 'tangled in', which shares the idea of knots and complications. Helpfully for the speller, the word is exactly as it sounds, a short blunt monosyllable, so the only thing to remember is the hard final -ck spelling typical of short native-feeling words.

How the word is built

• trick (single root, no affixes; from Old French trique 'deceit')