dissimulate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dissimulatesimple
-
dissimulatessimple
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have dissimulatedperfect
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has dissimulatedperfect
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am dissimulatingprogressive
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are dissimulatingprogressive
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is dissimulatingprogressive
-
have been dissimulatingperfect progressive
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has been dissimulatingperfect progressive
Past
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dissimulatedsimple
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had dissimulatedperfect
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was dissimulatingprogressive
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were dissimulatingprogressive
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had been dissimulatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dissimulate
First recorded in 1525–35, dissimulate is from the Latin word dissimulātus (past participle of dissimulāre to feign). See dis- 1, simulate
Explanation
Your wife gave you socks for Christmas and you smiled happily and kissed her? You, my friend, know how to dissimulate — that is, cover up your true feelings. Unless you happen to really, really like socks. Sometimes confused with dissimilar, meaning "not alike", or "different," or a form of simulate, meaning "to pretend to do or feel something." Being able to dissimulate is a useful trick, not just if your wife gives you socks. After all, the whole political process depends on it. As Louis XI once said, "He who knows not how to dissimulate, can not reign." Wikipedia would probably agree with that.
Vocabulary lists containing dissimulate
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "D"
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The Prince
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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.
See Examples For:
But the Gift’s double-sided sword–ness also justifies the regime’s turning of Wakanda into an encrypted nation, a nation projecting a simulated self in order to dissimulate.
From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2018
Aspirants to public office in the US may well dissimulate, but in a wide-open cultural landscape, with only the occasional ironic outcropping, there's hardly anywhere for them to hide.
From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2013
He knew how to dissimulate his intentions so well that the Orsini themselves, through Lord Paulo, reconciled themselves with him.
From "The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli
He bent before this blow as humbly as a school-girl, and soon even abandoned the attempt to dissimulate, and wrung his hands in passionate sorrow as he went.
From Luttrell Of Arran Complete by Lever, Charles James
Perhaps in some way the air of indecision and anxiety was due to that expression peculiar to those afflicted with deafness whose aim it is to dissimulate their infirmity.
From Garrick's Pupil by Filon, Auguston
Chou quickly cuts to the heart of matters, drops the impractical, dissimulates when necessary and never gambles�without four aces.
From Time Magazine Archive
Some hatred, weak and without self-confidence, or seeking the effect of surprise, is hypocritical, dissimulates, affects friendly feeling, rubs its hands over insults and awaits the opportune moment.
From The Foundations of Personality by Myerson, Abraham
Monk, who combines virtue with tact, dissimulates at first, then suddenly at the head of his troops dissolves the rebel parliament, and re-establishes the king on the throne.
From The Man Who Laughs by Hugo, Victor
At his age a man no longer dissimulates in his own family; he became more and more thoughtful, serious, and grieved as the hour approached when he would be forced to meet his civil death.
From The Alkahest by Wormeley, Katharine Prescott
And he dissimulates despair, ��� And anger, and suprise; ��� The while white daisies stare —And stir not—with their yellow eyes.
From Silverpoints by Gray, John
Other artists dissimulated their debts to French painting or let critics bury them.
From Time Magazine Archive
A spasm passed across the young Count's face, telling of some racking pain, dissimulated by an effort, and his eyes fell before Oswald's astonished, questioning gaze.
From Fickle Fortune by Elisabeth Burstenbinder (AKA E. Werner)
It must not be dissimulated what very dear friends Mr. Cecil Burleigh and Miss Julia Gardiner were.
From The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax by Lee, Holme, [pseud.]
She hadn't had it when she went in, and she had it when she came out; she had it there under her cloak, but dissimulated, invisibly carried, when smiling, smiling, she again faced Kate Croy.
From The Wings of the Dove, Volume 1 of 2 by James, Henry
Everyday influences, even the smallest and most dissimulated, are often the most efficacious.
From The Sexual Question A Scientific, psychological, hygienic and sociological study by Forel, Auguste
I’m sure Vikram has a high IQ, but did not display good judgment in dissimulating to me.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 21, 2026
Given this particular movie, she presumably also lectures on “Cyrano de Bergerac” and topics like the dissimulating heroine.
From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021
She herself was dissimulating each day, biding her time until she could just get out.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2019
On the contrary, it is the very heart of society's real unreality, capable of infinitely executing itself, and endlessly dissimulating the absence of the real.
From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2018
"Certainly, my child; bring me all your letters," rejoined the old man, dissimulating his satisfaction.
From A Cardinal Sin by Sue, Eugène
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.
