disingenuous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
- disingenuously adverb
- disingenuousness noun
- nondisingenuous adjective
- nondisingenuously adverb
- nondisingenuousness noun
Etymology
Origin of disingenuous
Explanation
Use the adjective disingenuous to describe behavior that's not totally honest or sincere. It's disingenuous when people pretend to know less about something than they really do. Disingenuous combines dis-, meaning "not," with ingenuous (from the Latin gen-, meaning "born") which was originally used to distinguish free-born Romans from slaves, and later came to mean "honest" or "straightforward." So disingenuous means "dishonest." Ingenuous is less common now than disingenuous, but we still use it for someone who is sincere to the point of naiveté. A good synonym is insincere.
Vocabulary lists containing disingenuous
100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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Grade 12, List 4
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This Week in Words: March 30–April 5, 2019
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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.
“But it would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn’t change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does,” he added.
From Barron's • Mar. 12, 2026
That’s not to say that the movie doesn’t have plenty of fascinating industry insider details to grab onto, or that it’s at all disingenuous, only that it lacks focus.
From Salon • Feb. 8, 2026
The ultras fan group state: "The justification for the ban is disingenuous, similar to previous bans."
From BBC • Nov. 7, 2025
Could the same be said of a disingenuous essayist?
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 28, 2025
Their very names were disingenuous, and told you nothing about their contents, their creators, or their managers: Carina, Gemstone, Octans III, Glacier Funding.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
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.
