Also called monte bank. a gambling game played with a 40-card pack in which players bet that one of two layouts, each consisting of two cards drawn from either the top or bottom of the deck and turned face up, will be matched in suit by the next card turned up.
a gambling card game of Spanish origin
informal a certainty
1815–25; < Spanish: mountain, hence, heap (of cards); see mount 2
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But these dynamics are uncertain in a play that treats identity like a game of three-card monte.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2024
If you see anyone playing three-card monte or a shell game, just keep walking.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 28, 2023
Activists at the time raised the alarm as they treated burns on animals displaced by the fires, including monitos del monte, - small nocturnal marsupials - and pudus, the world's smallest deer.
From Reuters ● Jul. 13, 2023
The old three card monte guys in New York had to wait for people to walk around.
From Salon ● Jul. 11, 2023
Yakov won the first two games, but when it came time to find the Lady at three-card monte, he uncovered a worthless heart.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
Sinner beat Alcaraz in April's Monte Carlo final which ensured the Italian reclaimed the top spot in the world rankings - a place which he has not looked like relinquishing since.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2026
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is launching all-share bids for Italian peers Banco BPM and Banca Generali valued at 34.02 billion euros.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
Sinner replaced him as world number one after beating him in the final of April's Monte Carlo Masters in their sole meeting of the year so far.
From BBC ● Aug. 20, 2026
But if you drive the river road past Monte Rio and the historic but touristy shops at Duncans Mills, you reach the coastal hamlet of Jenner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
One historian dubbed it the “Osage Monte Carlo.”
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
