deceptive

American  

[dih-sep-tiv] / dɪˈsɛp tɪv /

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.

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deceptive British  

/ dɪˈsɛptɪv /

adjective

1. likely or designed to deceive; misleading

   appearances can be deceptive

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

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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

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

Etymology

Origin of deceptive

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

Explanation

Something that's deceptive is not what it seems. A deceptive person will lead you to believe something other than the truth. Of course, I would never be deceptive when explaining the word deceptive. If someone tells you that “appearances can be deceptive,” they mean you should look closely at your surroundings because the truth might not be obvious. You might see a connection between the verb to deceive and the adjective deceptive, so you are on to something. If you deceive someone, you are being deceptive. Is it ok to be deceptive when you're planning a surprise party?

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

deceptive

Last year, it fined Elon Musk’s X almost $140 million for what it said was a deceptive blue-check-mark system and other transparency-related breaches.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

However, they also agreed with Cipollone that tobacco liability cases do not get blanket federal preemption, especially if industry participates in fraud or other deceptive practices independent of a warning label.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

Physical performance increased by 7% in the deceptive placebo group and by 9.2% in the open-label placebo group.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 2026

According to TikTok’s community guidelines, the platform bans accounts engaging in deceptive or manipulative activity or discrimination.

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

Household was peddling these deceptive mortgages all over the country.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Related Words

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