psyops means techniques used by military and police forces to influence the beliefs, emotions and behavior of citizens. It carries an Arena rating of 1149, earned across 221 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, psyops ranks #248 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #1,412 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #2,448 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #6,052 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound.
psyops is pronounced /ˈsaɪ.ɒps/.
Why “psyops” is a great word
PSYOPS — [Noun] Organized techniques used by military and police forces to influence the beliefs, emotions, and behavior of target audiences. It is a syllabic abbreviation of 'psychological operations'. Unlike propaganda, which broadly disseminates a partisan narrative, or military deception, which aims for tactical misdirection, psyops denotes a clinical, systemic application of psychological pressure. It is the pre-dawn broadcast of fabricated surrender orders, the leaflets fluttering down like metallic leaves to sow dissonance, and the carefully seeded rumor in a marketplace—a cold architecture of the mind built where persuasion ends and occupation begins.
Etymology
Syllabic abbreviation of psychological operations.
noun
- Techniques used by military and police forces to influence the beliefs, emotions and behavior of citizens.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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