countermove

noun

coun·​ter·​move ˈkau̇n-tər-ˌmüv 

variants or counter-move

plural countermoves or counter-moves

: a move designed to check, offset, or counter another move

Chess-playing programs, for instance, were … instructed to look ahead and try to calculate all possible moves and countermoves.

—Tom Alexander

… had seen … a linebacker drift out and line up nose to nose on a wide receiver. It surprised them, and they had come up with a countermove.

—Mark Bowden

… wanted to play out the long-term implications of possible U.S. moves and Iranian countermoves.

—James Fallows

"Their kidnapping of Miss Tuppence is the counter-move to your escape."

—Agatha Christie

Examples of countermove in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Risk of miscalculation The odds for a sharp countermove from Beijing and New Delhi that could quickly sour their ties with the U.S. also remain low, analysts say. —Anniek Bao, CNBC, 15 Apr. 2026

But over billions of years, phages have evolved ingenious countermoves to evade such defenses. —Viviane Callier, Quanta Magazine, 15 Apr. 2026

The Iranian regime’s usual countermove against the United States is to activate networks of global terrorism. —David Frum, The Atlantic, 16 Mar. 2026

Brown’s trading the one outfielder with some experience — while shedding his salary in the process — made a countermove seem almost guaranteed. —Chandler Rome, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1858, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for countermove

• disapprove
• approve
• disprove
• improve
• remove
• reprove
• groove
• move
• prove