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.
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
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
"Many species spend most of their lives beneath the leaf litter, and even when they emerge they can look deceptively similar," he added.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 30, 2026
The exercises are deceptively simple and easy to master.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
Pull back again, and the blue oceans came into view, then other continents and countries—Congo, Sudan, Afghanistan, and Iraq—all looking deceptively calm.
From "Outcasts United: An American Town, a Refugee Team, and One Woman's Quest to Make a Difference" by Warren St. John
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.
