deceive

Deceive means to lie, mislead, or otherwise hide or distort the truth.

The act or practice of deceiving can be called deceit or deception.

Lying is only one way of deceiving. Deceiving can consist of misrepresenting or omitting the truth or more complicated cover-ups. People can even deceive themselves by avoiding the truth.

The adjectives deceptive and deceitful can describe something that deceives or is intended to deceive. Someone who is known for deceiving others can be described as deceitful. Someone who is easily deceived can be described as deceivable.

Sometimes, the word deceive can be used in the context of things that are naturally or innocently misleading to one’s perception (without someone doing the deceiving), as in Do my eyes deceive me? The adjective deceiving can be used in this sense, as in Looks can be deceiving.

Example: A lot of advertising is intended to deceive us into thinking we need something.

The first records of the word deceive come from the 1200s. It comes from the Old French verb deceivre and ultimately derives from the Latin verb dēcipere, meaning “to ensnare” (in the literal sense of trapping someone or an animal).

Deceiving can include attempts to mislead or trick someone or trap them with a deceptive scheme. Deceiving someone may not involve outright lying to them. Some forms of deception involve concealing the truth or simply omitting the truth.

The poem Marmion by Scottish poet Sir Walter Scott contains a famous line (often mistakenly attributed to Shakespeare) that uses the word deceive: “Oh, what a tangled web we weave,/ When first we practise to deceive!” This means that lying and deceiving people makes things really complicated—one lie often leads to a web of others.

What are some other forms related to deceive?

• deceiving (continuous tense verb, adjective)
• deceiver (noun)
• deceivable (adjective)

What are some synonyms for deceive?

• mislead
• delude
• dupe
• fool
• trick
• hoodwink

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

• deceit
• deception
• deceptive
• deceitful

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

• lie
• liar
• duplicity
• dishonest
• distort
• omit
• truth
• web
• corruption

Deceive most commonly implies that the deception was intentional. For this reason, it is usually used negatively, especially to criticize those doing the deceiving.

At a minimum, we have to be able to trust that our representatives in Congress won't deceive us about a major threat to our lives so that they can profit on it. But that's exactly what Perdue and Loeffler did. It's an incredibly inhumane abuse of the public trust.

— Evan McMullin 🇺🇸 (@EvanMcMullin) December 7, 2020

Designed to Deceive: Do These People Look Real to You? (@nytimes) https://t.co/M2PbMzWlui #deepfakes #authentication #identityproofing pic.twitter.com/Cl9RJCPgMm

— Dean Nicolls (@Dean_Nicolls) December 1, 2020

don’t let that cute face deceive you! this little girl is a wild child 🌀 pic.twitter.com/SrdWiCiOOa

— Andrew Wiseman (@wisemannerisms) December 3, 2020

Which of the following words is a synonym of deceive?

A. mislead
B. dupe
C. delude
D. all of the above