disingenuous
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
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.
As is the case throughout, the questioners—the chairman, played with snide malice by Michael McKean, is flanked by two “investigators”—are pious, bullying and laughably disingenuous.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 18, 2026
You can’t name it or force it into a box, and if you do, the result will always read as disingenuous.
From Salon • Jun. 18, 2026
My audience can smell something disingenuous pretty quick.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2026
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose comments have stoked anxiety about AI's potential effects on society, are now arguing that doom-laden warnings were overblown or, in some cases, disingenuous.
From Barron's • May 27, 2026
If I feel they have ulterior motives or are the slightest bit disingenuous, I try to shelter the kids from them.
From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers
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.
