chicanery

/ʃəˈkeɪnəri/

Other forms: chicaneries

Have you ever gotten the sense that politicians or corporate leaders will say anything to turn public opinion their way? This tricky kind of deceit and manipulation is called chicanery.

Besides chicanery, another funny-sounding word for trickery is shenanigans. Whereas the former is always used in the singular and involves deceptive language, the latter is usually used in the plural and refers to the actions of a person. Your crazy neighbor is up to his old shenanigans if he has begun doing weird stuff again, but if a politician's chicanery is exposed, he will lose public trust and not be returned to office in the next election cycle.

Definitions of chicanery

1. noun

   the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them)
   synonyms: chicane, guile, shenanigan, trickery, wile

   types:

   dupery, fraud, fraudulence, hoax, humbug, put-on

   something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage

   jugglery

   artful trickery designed to achieve an end

   goldbrick

   anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthless

   type of:

   deceit, deception, dissembling, dissimulation

   the act of deceiving