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.
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
It’s disingenuous for me to put out something I haven’t lived.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Add this to the sensitivity and secrecy with which delicate diplomatic negotiations must proceed, and we have a fog of misleading statements, dramatic but disingenuous social-media posts, and intentionally obfuscatory leaks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 25, 2026
Others tried to analyze the facial expressions in photos of top administration figures, looking for something disingenuous to betray acting or indicate a lack of real fear.
From Slate ● Apr. 26, 2026
To these families, it all seemed so disingenuous, the thinly veiled plea for mercy and, most of all, the idea that Reggie was taking responsibility, “willing to man up.”
From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel
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.
