Trump (card game)

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Trump or trumps or trump suit are terms used in trick-taking games, traditionally called whist-style games although the best-known example may now be bridge, where cards of one suit rank above all non-trump cards, and automatically prevail over them, losing only to a higher trump if one is played to the same trick.

In most such games, trump cards cannot be played if the player can follow suit to the card led to the trick; in a few, trumps can be played at any time. The result of this is that trump cards are more likely to win tricks than cards of a non-trump suit of the same value. Examples are Pinochle, Euchre, and Bezique.

What occultists call the "Major Arcana" of divinatory tarot are used as a permanent suit of trumps in the game of Tarot, tarocchi, or tarock. The game of Tarot existed centuries before the deck was used for telling fortunes.

It is unclear whether the word "trump" derives from "triumph", documented as the name of a card game in 1529, or from "trump", meaning to deceive or cheat, from the French tromper.