hypocrisy

American  

[hi-pok-ruh-see] / hɪˈpɒk rə si /

noun

• hypocrisies
  plural

1. a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.

2. a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.

3. an act or instance of hypocrisy.

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hypocrisy British  

/ hɪˈpɒkrəsɪ /

noun

1. the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc, contrary to one's real character or actual behaviour, esp the pretence of virtue and piety

2. an act or instance of this

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Synonym Usage

See duplicity.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• hyperhypocrisy
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• hypocrisies
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hypocrisy

First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English ipocrisie, from Old French, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypókrisis “play acting,” from hypokrī(nesthai)́ “to play a part, explain” (from hypo- hypo- + krī́nein “to distinguish, separate”) + -sis -sis

Explanation

People who tell you not to eat candy while they chomp away on licorice all day? People who say they hate cars but always beg you for a ride? They are engaging in hypocrisy, or behavior that is different from what they say they believe. A hypocrite is a person who practices hypocrisy: what they say is not what they do. The noun hypocrisy descends from the Greek hypokrisis "acting on a stage," from hypokrinesthai "to play a part, pretend," from the prefix hypo- "under" plus krinein "to judge." Many times kids are enraged by their parents' hypocrisy when parents make their children follow rules they don't follow themselves.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hypocrisy hypocrisies

German centre-right politician Jens Spahn has resigned as parliamentary group leader of the country's governing coalition after being accused of hypocrisy over his use of a surrogate mother in the US to have a child.

From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026

But the DNA of the Barbary wars exists throughout American military history, a cocktail of entitlement, bravado and hypocrisy flavored with desperate violence.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

She said last year she had turned down France's highest civilian honour, the legion d'honneur, accusing the country of "hypocrisy" over visa policies that prevented dissidents travelling from Iran to France.

From Barron's ● Jun. 4, 2026

Emilia, by contrast, is a strikingly modern figure in her cynical assessments of the hypocrisy of a culture that will deride women for sexual behavior that wouldn’t be censured in men.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 1, 2026

“How could I do the thing that I must instruct her to never do, once she knows how to understand? That’s hypocrisy, is what.”

From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill

Critics come in for harsher abuse, but Mr. Ireland spreads around his comical scorn about the vanities and hypocrisies of theater folk liberally.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 19, 2026

Likewise, many well-known geniuses like Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and Fritz Lang, who were chased out of Europe by the Nazis, brilliantly exposed the hypocrisies and soul deadening conformity of mainstream American culture.

From Salon ● Jan. 1, 2026

And grew up on Mad magazine, where young minds were taught to recognize the deceptions and hypocrisies of politics, business and media.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2025

He was also an enslaver, blind, as so many others, to his own hypocrisies.

From Slate ● May 9, 2025

Back in high school, she was extremely vocal in pointing out hypocrisies in the curriculum, or inequalities in their disciplinary system—and nothing has really changed now that she’s a social ecology major at UC Irvine.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Related Words

• bigotry
• deceit
• deception
• dishonesty
• duplicity
• fraud
• insincerity
• mockery