Language & Culture
stooge
Computer-generated voice, not a recording. It may differ from the pronunciation guide.
IPA as listed by Wiktionary.
In short
A stooge is someone who goes along with another person's wishes and is used for that person's benefit, often as a dupe.
In the theater, a stooge is also an assistant who helps a performer from inside the crowd.
01 Meaning
What does stooge mean?
The word has several related senses, and which one you meet depends on the setting:
- Someone used by another: a person who knowingly allows themselves to be used for another’s profit, or a dupe.
- Comedy: the straight man who feeds lines to the comedian.
- Stage magic: an assistant who pretends to be an ordinary member of the audience.
- Policing: a secret informant.
- Research: a confederate, someone secretly working with the researcher without the participants knowing.
It can also work as a verb meaning to act as a straight man.
02 Word origin
Where does it come from?
Where stooge comes from is not settled. Its earliest sense was a stage assistant, an actor who helps a comedian. Wiktionary mentions a possible link to the Russian word for "student" and a possible vaudeville origin in Yiddish, but presents both only as possibilities.
03 In context
How to use it in a sentence
“He insisted he was a stooge for the company, not a decision-maker.”
“The magician's stooge pretended to be a stranger from the third row.”
Sources and updates
- stooge, Cambridge Dictionary. Checked October 20, 2026.
- stooge - Origin and history, Online Etymology Dictionary. Checked October 20, 2026.
- stooge, Wiktionary. Checked October 19, 2026.
Definitions and examples are written in our own words from the sources above. Published . Updated .