deceptive

[dih-sep-tiv]

adjective

1. apt or tending to deceive.

   The enemy's peaceful overtures may be deceptive.

   Synonyms: specious, fallacious, delusive

2. perceptually misleading.

   It looks like a curved line, but it's deceptive.

deceptive

/ dɪˈsɛptɪv /

adjective

1. likely or designed to deceive; misleading

   appearances can be deceptive

2. music (of a cadence) another word for interrupted

Other Word Forms

• deceptively adverb
• deceptiveness noun
• nondeceptive adjective
• nondeceptiveness noun
• undeceptive adjective
• undeceptiveness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of deceptive¹

First recorded in 1605–15; from Medieval Latin dēceptīvus, equivalent to Latin dēcept(us) “deceived” ( deception ) + -īvus -ive

Example Sentences

The defendants engaged in a "deliberate and deceptive effort to transship controlled Nvidia GPUs to China by falsifying paperwork, creating fake contracts, and misleading US authorities," Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg said in a statement.

Read more on Barron's

Carr's letter also stated that he was "writing to determine whether any FCC regulations have been implicated by the BBC's misleading and deceptive conduct".

Read more on BBC

With vocal writing of sublime, deceptive simplicity, “poor hymnal” gifts an unforgettable hour of kindness while becoming a moving manual for unpossessing.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

When the person delivering the potentially deceptive information was considered a friend, both individuals showed synchronized brain activity.

Read more on Science Daily

Gambling promoters are using deceptive marketing tactics to reach Indonesian users across Meta platforms, despite the company's policies and a government crackdown on the illegal practice.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• ambiguous 
• deceitful 
• disingenuous 
• false 
• fraudulent 
• misleading 
• slick 
• sneaky 
• subtle 
• tricky 
• underhanded 
• unreliable 

When To Use

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.