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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

skulduggery.

A devious device or trick.

11 characters4 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/skʌlˈdʌɡəɹi/Received-Pronunciation/skʌlˈdʌɡɹi/Received-Pronunciation/ˌskʌlˈdʌɡəɹi/General-American/ˌskʌlˈdʌɡɹi/General-American
  1. A devious device or trick.

    countable
  2. Dishonest, underhanded, or unscrupulous activities or behaviour.

    uncountable
Where this word comes from

An alteration of Scots sculduddery, sculdudrie (“adultery, unchaste behaviour; obscenity, lewdness”), of long-uncertain origin (probably a euphemism). Relation to skull is speculative at best and likely folk etymology. The American spelling skullduggery is in keeping with terms such as skillful and willful.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.