trump

The word “trump” means in card games, a suit chosen (or turned up) to rank higher than the other three for that hand. In plain terms, as a noun, the card suit that beats all others in a hand; as a verb, to beat something by playing a stronger card — or, more generally, by producing something better at the crucial moment.

“Trump” is pronounced truhmp (/tɹʌmp/ in IPA).

Here is “trump” used in a sentence: “Hearts were trumps, so her low heart beat his ace of spades.”

Words with a similar meaning to “trump” include ruff, clown and cheat.

Depending on how it is used, “trump” can be a noun and a verb.

“Trump” is an uncommon word in modern English.

“Trump” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: in card games, a suit chosen (or turned up) to rank higher than the other three for that hand.

To trump a card means to beat it by playing a card from the trump suit, which outranks all the ordinary suits for that hand. Even the lowest trump beats the highest card of a normal suit, so trumping is a key way to win tricks in many games.

It depends on the game. In some, such as whist, the trump suit is decided by turning up the top card of the deck after dealing. In others, like bridge or euchre, players bid or call to name it. Once set, that suit outranks the other three for the whole hand.

Many classic trick-taking games do. Bridge, whist, euchre, spades and hearts all use a trump suit in some form, as do the older tarot card games. The idea is central to this family of games: one suit is raised above the rest to add strategy to each hand.

In a given hand, the three ordinary suits rank equally and only beat cards of their own kind. The trump suit is lifted above them all, so any trump beats any card from the other suits. This special status is the only thing that separates a trump from a normal suit.