deceitful

Deceitful means intended to or tending to deceive—to lie, mislead, or otherwise hide or distort the truth.

The noun deceit most commonly refers to the act or practice of deceiving, but it can also refer to the quality of someone or something that deceives. A deceitful person can be said to be full of deceit.

Deceitful can describe people, their actions, or something that deceives or is intended to deceive, as in It was a deceitful plan from the beginning. The word deceptive has a very similar meaning, but it’s typically applied to actions or practices, as in deceptive business practices.

Being deceitful 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 deceitful.

Words like deceit and deceitful often imply a pattern of behavior, rather than a one-time act.

Example: I’m sick of how deceitful you are—I can’t trust anything you say!

The first records of the word deceitful come from the 1400s. Its base word, deceit, comes from the Old French verb deceivre, meaning “to deceive.” Deceit and related words like deceive and deception ultimately derive from the Latin verb dēcipere, meaning “to ensnare” (in the literal sense of trapping someone or an animal).

Things described as deceitful include attempts to mislead or trick someone or trap them with a deceptive scheme. Being deceitful always involves deceiving someone, but it may not involve outright lying. Some forms of deceit involve concealing the truth or simply omitting the truth. Just because you didn’t lie doesn’t mean you weren’t deceitful.

What are some other forms related to deceitful?

• deceitfully (adverb)
• deceitfulness (noun)
• deceit (noun)

What are some synonyms for deceitful?

• deceptive
• duplicitous
• dishonest

What are some words that share a root or word element with deceitful? 

• deceive
• deception
• deceivable

What are some words that often get used in discussing deceitful?

• practice
• behavior
• person
• lie
• mislead
• liar
• trick

Deceitful and deceptive are often used to mean the same thing, but deceptive is less likely to be used to describe a person and more likely to describe an action or practice. Deceitful can be used in all kinds of contexts, though of course it is common in political discussion.

Have you noticed how tiring it is to watch people being casually deceitful?

— Christine Burns MBE 🧜‍♀️🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈📚⧖ (@christineburns) December 9, 2020

The concept behind borrower defense is simple: students shouldn’t have to pay loans based on lies and other deceitful practices. – @jameskvaal @TICAS_org #DefendBorrowers pic.twitter.com/Vzvg9oT0zU

— AFT (@AFTunion) January 16, 2020

how does one sleep at night lying that much & being so deceitful.. just sad

— alesia4shizzle (@alesia4shizzle) November 21, 2020

Which of the following words is NOT a synonym of deceitful?

A. duplicitous
B. deceptive
C. descriptive
D. dishonest