deceptively
Americanadverb
-
in a way that tends to mislead or give a false impression.
This game is played with such deceptively simple materials, yet is so interestingly complex!
Some of these harmful foods are deceptively marketed as "healthy" by giant food corporations.
-
in a way that is perceptually misleading.
If only a segment of sky is visible, the bands of Earth’s shadow and the Belt of Venus appear deceptively parallel.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of deceptively
First recorded in 1810–20; deceptive ( def. ) + -ly ( def. )
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.
Now, thanks to some startling revelations about AI agents collaborating deceptively to outwit their human overlords, doomers are ascendant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The San Francisco-based AI lab also accused Chinese developers of deceptively using Claude to produce responses to user queries while simultaneously "distilling" that data to improve their own models.
From Barron's ● Sep. 11, 2026
It was a deceptively idyllic setting for what authorities say is continued lawbreaking and peril, which authorities just can’t seem to quash.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
Last September, Amazon paid $2.5 billion to settle allegations that it deceptively tricked consumers into Amazon Prime subscriptions and made cancelling them excessively difficult.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
But under the deceptively clean and level slate the topography was the same, and instead of San Francisco or Europe or Mars I would be learning the old landscape, brook and hill and tree.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
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.
