English

Noun

strategy ‎(countable and uncountable, plural strategies)

1. The science and art of military command as applied to the overall planning and conduct of warfare.
2. A plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal.
   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:

     “I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I ?  Why didn’t I telephone ?  Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”

   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7:

     Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close […] above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them. Many insects probably use this strategy, which is a close analogy to crypsis in the visible world—camouflage and other methods for blending into one’s visual background.

3. (Can we clean up⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) The art of using similar techniques in politics or business.

Usage notes

• Verbs often used with "strategy": drive, follow, pursue, execute, implement, adopt, abandon, accept, reject, create.

Synonyms

• generalship

Derived terms

Related terms

• stratagem

Coordinate terms

• (an art of using similar techniques in politics or business): tactics

Translations

See also

• long game