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

The players announced their moves and countermoves, negotiated, interrupted one another and occasionally shouted over our unflappable controller, Ed McGrady, an experienced game architect. —Barton Gellman, Washington Post, 30 July 2024

These countermoves are whipping up a default perfect storm. —Carla Norrlof, Foreign Affairs, 18 Mar. 2022

Instead of digesting this laughable conclusion and making a cunning countermove, Danvers lashes out, accusing Kate and the mine of covering up Annie K.’s murder and the water pollution near Ennis. —Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 9 Feb. 2024

This interplay ensures that the balance of survival never stagnates, as each evolutionary innovation prompts a countermove in the complex chess game of predator-prey relationships. —Scott Travers, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1858, in the meaning defined above