strategy

From Ancient Greek στρατηγία (stratēgía, “office of general, command, generalship”), from στρατηγός (stratēgós, “the leader or commander of an army, a general”), from στρατός (stratós, “army”) + ἄγω (ágō, “I lead, I conduct”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɹæt.ə.d͡ʒi/

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strategy (countable and uncountable, plural strategies)

1. (uncountable) The science and art of military command as applied to the overall planning and conduct of warfare.
   • 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. …”

2. (countable) A plan of action intended to accomplish a specific goal.

   Oftentimes, the very simple strategies pay very great dividends.

   • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, pages 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. (uncountable) The act of strategizing; the development of effective strategies.

• generalship

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

• stratagem
• strategus

• long game

• “strategy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “strategy”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “strategy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.