# Is there a word that means "playing smart"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2014, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099 "2014-12-24T15:40:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jezzaOZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@jezzaOZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jezzaOZ)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/21 "2014-12-25T01:08:14Z")
Journalism ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/22 "2014-12-25T01:12:54Z")
How about _bamboozling_ ? Although, to be sure, this word only really works when the pretending-to-be-smarter-than-thou is successful in fooling someone into thinking so. Otherwise, it’s only attempted bamboozling. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/23 "2014-12-25T01:17:31Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I’m thinking a cross between bullshitting and bluffing is what I’m after. Bluffleshitting. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/24 "2014-12-25T01:31:32Z")
Pseudo-intellectual, pretentious, poser. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/25 "2014-12-25T02:07:10Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Therre are millions of verb-adverb combinations that have no single-word equivalent, which is why English has so many big long 4 and 5 word sentences. There is no word for “there are”, nor for “have no” nor for “which is” nor for “so many”, each of which has a one-word equivalent in many languages, if not most. You just have to get used to it. “have no” = lack ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/26 "2014-12-25T02:08:15Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Yes it does. My neighbor got into the market and played dumb , got some bad investments. I don’t like him, so when he asked me what to do to fix his situation, I had some good ideas, but I played dumb. Completely different. Is there a way to ban posters from particular forums, such as GQ? That’d be great. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/27 "2014-12-25T02:51:19Z")
Projecting the appearance of comprehension and confidence when you are utterly baffled? I don’t know what word other than posted above is best, but…\*man…\*they ought to teach a course in it.:dubious: ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/28 "2014-12-25T04:11:07Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Projecting the appearance of comprehension and confidence when you are utterly baffled? > > I don’t know what word other than posted above is best, but…\*man…\*they ought to teach a course in it.:dubious: I would have thought it was a required class for PhD’s 😃 ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/29 "2014-12-25T04:53:34Z")
Perpetratin’ ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/30 "2014-12-25T05:15:00Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Perpetratin’ Along those lines, frontin’ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/31 "2014-12-25T05:27:18Z")
Playing Smart is what Don Adams did. Sorry about that, Chief. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/32 "2014-12-25T09:10:05Z")
Posturing ? well there is pastor posturing, which are those anecdotes or stories that are not bible stories… Maybe propaganderizing… maybe spin-doctoring. Although this might be done by very bright people. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/33 "2014-12-25T11:47:52Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > That phrase (emphasis added) would not be used by a native speaker of English. “Played dumb” is the type of phrase that could mean different things, but would generally cause confusion if you tried to use it instead of “played stupidly” because of it’s strong connotation with “pretended to not know”. > > Is English your native language? If not, then you might be aware of that. “Played” in this instance is a synonym for “pretended” or “acted” ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/34 "2014-12-25T11:48:56Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Projecting the appearance of comprehension and confidence when you are utterly baffled? > > I don’t know what word other than posted above is best, but…\*man…\*they ought to teach a course in it.:dubious: Isn’t it called Politics? ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/35 "2014-12-25T18:04:39Z")
> [@dasmoocher](#): > > I’m thinking a cross between bullshitting and bluffing is what I’m after. > > The context was a supervisor in a lab that had a mis-calibrated piece of equipment, but they didn’t know/appreciate it. Results “looked great”. > > No, they don’t. And that’s when I knew they were [insert word I’m looking for]. > > It might have been a cultural thing where they felt they must be the absolute expert on all things in the lab, because there were other similar occurrences with other procedures/protocols/analyses we did. The context was a supervisor in a lab that had a mis-calibrated piece of equipment, but they didn’t know ( Ignorant _of_ ) /appreciate it. (_No insight or_[COLOR=“Lime”] intuitiveness _of the correct results_[/COLOR] ) Results “looked great”. IMO, you have to pick one description to get one word; ‘not knowing’ is way different from ‘not apprectating’ it. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/36 "2014-12-25T18:09:14Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > IMO, you have to pick one description to get one word; > ‘not knowing’ is way different from ‘not apprectating’ it. For people who _think_ they’re smarter or more competent than they really are, see [Dunning–Kruger effect](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect). That’s different from people who are perfectly well aware that they don’t know what they’re doing but act as though they do. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/37 "2014-12-25T19:00:29Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > IMO, you have to pick one description to get one word; > ‘not knowing’ is way different from ‘not apprectating’ it. I was using appreciate in this sense: > [@](#): > > [2. understand (a situation) fully; recognize the full implications of.](https://www.google.com/#safe=off&q=appreciate) > > “they failed to appreciate the pressure he was under” > synonyms: recognize, acknowledge, realize, know, be aware of, be conscious of, be sensitive to, understand, comprehend, grasp, fathom; > > _informal_ be wise to > “we appreciate your difficulty” I don’t think that’s way different. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099/38 "2014-12-25T19:41:50Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Bluffleshitting. I LOL’d at this new word. I shall have to use it in a sentence, plenty of occasions around the office. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-playing-smart/708099.md?page=1)