Idiom
element of surprise
Meaning
The strategic advantage afforded to a party when its opposition may be caught by surprise.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The team used the element of surprise to win the game.”
“By arriving at the meeting an hour early, she used the element of surprise to catch her competitors off guard.”
“The general planned a midnight maneuver, relying entirely on the element of surprise to overwhelm the enemy forces before they could organize a defense.”
Examples
simple
“The team used the element of surprise to win the game.”
contextual
“By arriving at the meeting an hour early, she used the element of surprise to catch her competitors off guard.”
complex
“The general planned a midnight maneuver, relying entirely on the element of surprise to overwhelm the enemy forces before they could organize a defense.”
Key words
Related idioms
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