strategic
- 1Relating to strategy, or to the planning of how best to achieve a long-term aim.
The merger was a strategic move designed to secure the company's position for the next decade.
Her strategic thinking helped the nonprofit prioritize its limited resources.
Similarstrategical
Oppositetactical, haphazard, unplanned
Note
Behind the planner's word stands a general. Greek stratēgikós meant "of or for a general," from stratēgós, built from stratós, "army," and agō, "I lead." The modern sense needs no army at all: a strategic move or strategic thinking is simply long-range planning. Strategical means the same, and strategetic and strategetical are rare enough to avoid. The military meaning keeps closest to that origin.
- 2Relating to military operations on a large scale or over long distances, rather than local or tactical ones.
Strategic bombing campaigns targeted industrial centers far behind the front lines.
The treaty limited the number of strategic nuclear missiles each side could deploy.
Similarlong-range
Oppositetactical
Note
Here the word returns to the battlefield, and its natural partner is tactical. Tactical operations are local and immediate. Strategic ones reach further and aim at an enemy's overall capacity to wage war, including its industry, infrastructure and command. That is why a strategic bomber strikes far behind the front, and why a strategic nuclear weapon is defined by range and scale rather than by any single engagement.
Practice
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Origin
From Ancient Greek στρατηγικός (stratēgikós, "of or for a general"), from στρατηγός (stratēgós, "the commander of an army, a general"), which combines στρατός (stratós, "army") and ἄγω (ágō, "I lead").