strategize
Americanverb (used without object)
Usage
What does strategize mean? To strategize is to plan or create a plan or strategy for a specific reason or goal. A strategy is a plan for a course of action, especially one that prepares for multiple scenarios or situations. Strategize is commonly used in any context that involves extensive planning, especially the military, business, politics, and sports. Example: One candidate had clearly strategized before the debate and knew how to answer every question and respond to every attack. The other candidate was obviously winging it.
Etymology
Origin of strategize
First recorded in 1970–75; strateg(y) + -ize
Explanation
When you work on a plan with the aim of achieving a goal, you strategize. If you don't strategize before the big debate, you'll probably be unprepared and unconvincing. You and your sister should strategize before presenting your proposal for higher allowances to your mom. That means you'll come up with a game plan to achieve your goal: convincing her that ten dollars a week makes sense. Chess players strategize too, studying the board for possible moves and planning ahead to ultimately put their opponent's king in check mate. Strategize and strategy were first used as military terminology, from a root meaning "military commander."
Vocabulary lists containing strategize
Academic Vocabulary and Literary Terms, Unit 1
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Academic and Literary Vocabulary, Unit 2
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The Black Girl Survives in This One
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
If I’m a smart marketer, I know what my competition is going to do or not do, and I can strategize around that.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
Stolz, who did not have an American teammate in the final to help him strategize, said the rest of the pack was reluctant to make a move on the leaders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2026
His law firm had invented “Mass Torts Made Perfect” and ran it as a conference for elite plaintiffs’ attorneys nationwide to rub elbows and strategize, making him the unofficial president of the polo club posse.
From Slate ● Jan. 13, 2026
A new levies strategy from the U.S. government may create a new set of challenges for companies—and spur more costly legal bills as businesses strategize around new tariff authorities.
From Barron's ● Dec. 22, 2025
But King needed time to reflect and strategize without Johnson’s notorious arm-twisting.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
Ariane strategized with Epstein on pushing back, and thrust the matter into public view by filing a lawsuit in 2015 to control using the name in finance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
The files provide a rare window into how Epstein reacted and strategized in real time to the political and cultural earthquake of #MeToo.
From Salon ● Feb. 6, 2026
Schmeltz, who is one of the leaders of the national Jewish on Campus Student Union, said the group has strategized on how to respond as protests multiplied.
From Seattle Times ● May 3, 2024
For months this winter, they strategized ways to woo the two-time American League MVP to Chavez Ravine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 13, 2024
He carefully strategized its safekeeping and after much deliberation the twenty-seven crates were secretly shipped to the castle museum in Königsberg.
From "Salt to the Sea" by Ruta Sepetys
Those supports are a vital part of a long-term-care plan, and could do more to help stretch funds than any shuffling around of index funds or tax strategizing.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
Sometimes, that kind of strategizing goes both ways.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2026
There are always question marks hanging over “Doctor Who,” which intermittently swaps out its lead and secondary actors as a function of its narrative premise and practical strategizing, but never quite so many as now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
That doesn’t mean Brooklinen isn’t strategizing about how to best capitalize on the growing interest in AI.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
Cleopatra, who would be financing the expedition, may have helped with the strategizing, too.
From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby
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.
