exploits

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of exploit.

   The explorer's exploits filled several volumes of memoir.

   Newspapers celebrated the team's daring exploits across the continent.

   Note

   One spelling serves two parts of speech: as a noun it names deeds, and it matches the verb form letter for letter. In storytelling, the plural gathers a person's heroic or extraordinary feats. In computing it counts something else entirely: programs or techniques that take advantage of a software vulnerability. Gamers have widened that sense to tricks that turn a game's conditions to one player's advantage.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of exploit.

   The company exploits cheap labor to keep its prices low.

   He exploits loopholes in the tax code to reduce his bills.

   Note

   This form is transitive and always takes an object, and the object usually decides its tone. With a resource or an opportunity, it is neutral or even approving: making good use of what is there. With people, their labor or their property, it becomes an accusation of unfair advantage. The noun spelled the same way, the plural of deeds, carries none of that censure.

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