A tactic is a specific action or method you use to achieve a goal, especially in a challenging situation. When your basketball team uses a pick-and-roll play to get open for a shot, that's a tactic. When you decide to study the hardest vocabulary words first because they'll need the most review time, you're using a study tactic.

The word often appears in competitive contexts. Military commanders plan tactics for battles. Chess players develop tactics to trap their opponent's pieces. A debater might use the tactic of asking questions to expose weak points in the other side's argument.

Tactics are practical and immediate: they're the specific moves you make right now to win or succeed. This makes them different from strategy, which is your bigger, overall plan. Your strategy might be to become better at math, while your tactics include doing extra practice problems, asking questions in class, and working with a study partner.

People also use tactics to describe clever or sometimes sneaky methods. A younger sibling might use the tactic of being extra helpful when they want to ask for something later. When someone accuses another person of using delay tactics, they mean that person is stalling on purpose. The word itself is neutral, but the tactics themselves can be honorable or underhanded.