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strategy

/ˈstrætədʒi//ˈstrætədʒi/·noun
a carefully devised plan of action designed to achieve a long-term goal
Fig. 1 — A marker waits at the root of a branching tree, not yet moving.
01Definition

A strategy is a plan built to reach a major goal — one that looks ahead and weighs how each move will play out against obstacles or an opponent. The word comes from the Greek stratēgia, 'generalship': the art of the commander who plans the whole campaign, not just the next skirmish. Unlike a fixed scheme of parts laid out once, a strategy chooses among possible paths and tries to anticipate the response to each, keeping the end always in view.

02In use
  • iThe company's marketing strategy was to win over younger users before its rivals could react.
  • iiA grandmaster's strategy reaches a dozen moves ahead, not just to the next capture.
  • iiiWithout a coherent strategy, the team's efforts pulled in three different directions at once.
03Collocations
  • a long-term strategy
  • a marketing strategy
  • devise a strategy
  • a coherent strategy
  • an exit strategy

Family strategic (adjective) · strategically (adverb) · strategist (noun)

04Relations

=plan, approach, tactic, game plan, blueprint

≠improvisation, guesswork

06TOEFL & IELTS

A high-frequency academic noun for essays on business, politics, and the environment — 'a long-term strategy', 'devise a strategy' move straight into Writing Task 2. Note the shift in stress and vowel to the adjective strategic (/strəˈtiːdʒɪk/) and the noun strategist. Don't confuse strategy (the overall plan) with tactic (a single move serving it) — examiners notice the distinction.

07Asked
What is the difference between strategy and tactics?
Strategy is the overall plan for winning; tactics are the individual moves that carry it out. Strategy sets the destination and the route; tactics are the steps taken along it. A company's strategy might be to dominate the youth market; running a campus advertising campaign is a tactic serving it. The scene above is strategy in pure form: reading every branch to its end, then committing to the one route that reaches the goal.
What does strategy mean?
A plan built to reach a major goal by looking ahead — weighing how each move will play against obstacles or an opponent before committing. From Greek stratēgia, 'generalship', it keeps the commander's long view: not the next step alone but the whole campaign. What separates a strategy from a mere plan is anticipation — it chooses among possible futures rather than simply listing actions.
What is the difference between strategy and strategic?
Strategy is the noun — the plan itself; strategic is the adjective describing anything that serves the larger plan: a strategic decision, a strategic location, strategic thinking. Note the shift in sound: STRAT-uh-jee for the noun, struh-TEE-jik for the adjective, stress and vowels both moving. Calling a move strategic says it fits the long game, not just the moment.
What is the plural of strategy?
Strategies — the y turns to ies after a consonant, the same rule as company/companies and city/cities. The related nouns follow their own paths: one strategist, several strategists; the adjective strategic never changes. If a plan ends in a vowel-plus-y it would simply add s, but strategy's y follows a consonant, so ies it is.
What does 'exit strategy' mean?
A plan for getting out of something cleanly, prepared before you need it — an investor's route to selling a stake, a general's plan for withdrawing troops, an escape from a commitment gone wrong. The phrase captures strategy's forward-looking core: the wise time to plan the exit is at the entrance. It has spread from business and war into everyday talk about leaving any tricky situation.