straw man

1. 1.

   a person used as a cover for some questionable activity

   Synonymsfront manfrontfigureheadnominal headstrawman

   Broaderdeceiver
2. 2.

   a weak or sham argument set up to be easily refuted

   Synonymsstrawman

   Broaderspecious argument
3. 3.

   an effigy in the shape of a man to frighten birds away from seeds

   Synonymsscarecrowstrawmanbird-scarerscarer

   Broadereffigy

Questions about straw man

What does straw man mean?

straw man means "a person used as a cover for some questionable activity". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for straw man?

Close synonyms include front man, front, figurehead, nominal head, strawman. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is straw man a common word?

straw man is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.