deceptively

[ dih-sep-tiv-lee ]

adverb

1. 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.

2. 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 Words From

• non·de·cep·tive·ly adverb
• un·de·cep·tive·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of deceptively¹

First recorded in 1810–20; deceptive ( def ) + -ly ( def )

Example Sentences

Later stories showed how TurboTax uses deceptive design and misleading ads to get people to pay to file their taxes, even when they are eligible to file for free.

From ProPublica

Hopkins’s allegations, without his name, were first aired last week by Project Veritas, an organization that uses deceptive tactics to expose what it says is bias and corruption in the mainstream media.

From Washington Post

This deceptive and convenient electoral system was manufactured several years after the triumph of the 1959 revolution and allowed the same man to govern for 49 years.

From Washington Blade

If and when Faraday Future hits public markets, it will bear a huge legacy of mismanagement and alleged deceptive behavior by its founder, Jia Yueting.

From Fortune

Yet the apparent simplicity of the olfactory system soon proved deceptive.

From Nautilus

That Snapchat deceptively told its users that the sender would be notified if a recipient took a screenshot of a snap.

From The Daily Beast

Ernst won her race for Montgomery County auditor, a deceptively powerful position in local Hawkeye State politics, in 2005.

From The Daily Beast

She is a woman with strong, provocative, and deceptively intuitive opinions.

From The Daily Beast

Watercolors are strikingly identical and the charcoal works, done with color pencil, are deceptively perfect.

From The Daily Beast

Like a lot of great bookstores, on the outside, Green Apple is deceptively simple, humble, even misleading.

From The Daily Beast

He had come away in the sour mood of a thirsty man who finds an alkali spring sparkling deceptively under a rock.

From Project Gutenberg

If the materialist use the words "right" and "obligation," he does it deceptively, and means only compulsion and power.

From Project Gutenberg

He watched Harrington make a deceptively pointless-looking move.

From Project Gutenberg

A small, clear stream flowed below it to the left, so deceptively clear that it reflected the hillside in all its natural tints.

From Project Gutenberg

He was not hurrying, but his short wolf-trot ate up ground in deceptively quick time.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ably
• adroitly
• artfully
• carefully
• cleverly
• coolly
• deftly
• deliberately
• intelligently
• judiciously
• keenly
• knowingly
• skillfully
• slyly
• smartly