devil's advocatenoun [ C usually singular ]
uk/ˌdev.əlz ˈæd.və.kət/us/ˌdev.əlz ˈæd.və.kət/someone who pretends, in an argument or discussion, to be against an idea or plan that a lot of people support, in order to make people discuss and consider it in more detail:
I don't really believe all that - I was just playing devil's advocate.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Debate & discussion
- arena
- compare
- conciliate
- dialectic
- float around
- fly
- fly around
- get down to business idiom
- kick sth around
- negotiable
- negotiate
- parley
- reason with sb
- reasoning
- sophistry
- speak
- talk sth out
- talk sth over
- toss
- weigh in
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