deceptive
Americanadjective
-
apt or tending to deceive.
The enemy's peaceful overtures may be deceptive.
- Synonyms:
- specious, fallacious, delusive
-
perceptually misleading.
It looks like a curved line, but it's deceptive.
adjective
-
likely or designed to deceive; misleading
appearances can be deceptive
-
music (of a cadence) another word for interrupted
Usage
What does deceptive mean? Deceptive means intended to or tending to deceive—to lie, mislead, or otherwise hide or distort the truth.Deceptive is typically used to describe an action or something that deceives or is intended to deceive, as in deceptive business practices. The related noun deception refers to the act or practice of deceiving or being deceptive.Being deceptive doesn’t just involve lying. It can consist of misrepresenting or omitting the truth or more complicated cover-ups. Anything that involves intentionally misleading someone is deceptive.The word deceitful often means the same thing but is more likely to be used to describe a person, whereas deceptive is more commonly applied to actions and practices.Deceptive can also be used to describe things that are naturally or innocently misleading to one’s perception (without someone doing the deceiving). This sense of the word is especially used in its adverb form—for example, something might be called deceptively small because it looks bigger than it is. The adjective deceiving means the same thing.Example: The report was widely criticized for being deceptive by intentionally omitting crucial pieces of information.
Other Word Forms
- deceptively adverb
- deceptiveness noun
- nondeceptive adjective
- nondeceptiveness noun
- undeceptive adjective
- undeceptiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of deceptive
First recorded in 1605–15; from Medieval Latin dēceptīvus, equivalent to Latin dēcept(us) “deceived” ( deception ) + -īvus -ive
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In a spot that AT&T introduced in October, actor Luke Wilson pulls a newspaper out of a tumbleweed and reads, “T-Mobile most challenged for deceptive ads.”
The latter was a bit of a non sequitur, however, given that the EU fine was tied to allegations of deceptive business practices, transparency issues, and a failure to provide public data to researchers.
From Barron's
The EU regulator said the platform's blue tick system was "deceptive" because the firm was not "meaningfully verifying users".
From BBC
So it’s time to really take the measure of AI slop: which of it is deceptive, which amusing and which merely an avoidable nuisance.
From Los Angeles Times
The city is requesting monetary penalties and a statewide order forcing the food giants to change their "deceptive" marketing tactics.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
