intrigue

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

Borrowed from French intrigue, from Italian intricare, from Latin intrīcō (“to entangle, perplex, embarrass”). Doublet of intricate.

Who doesn’t have intrigues nowadays? — War and Peace, Leo, graf Tolstoy
It is only a little intrigue.... — The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
Amorous intrigue was their constantly recurring theme. — From Chaucer to Tennyson: With Twenty-Nine Portraits and Selections from Thirty Authors, Henry A. (Henry Augustin) Beers

machination

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