hypocrisy
- a pretense of having a virtuous character, moral or religious beliefs or principles, etc., that one does not really possess.
- a pretense of having some desirable or publicly approved attitude.
- an act or instance of hypocrisy.
Origin of hypocrisy
Synonym study
Related Words for hypocrisies
fraud, deception, duplicity, mockery, bigotry, insincerity, deceit, dishonesty, double-dealing, lie, casuistry, sanctimoniousness, falsity, sanctimony, cant, pietism, quackery, speciousness, affectation, irreverenceExamples from the Web for hypocrisies
Contemporary Examples of hypocrisies
Pivot forward and you can see the hypocrisies that will be dragged out in the coming days.
A longtime advocate of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation on the hypocrisies—and complexities—of the Gaza conflict.
Historical Examples of hypocrisies
Go back to the lies and hypocrisies of society, and the brainless, mashers who adorn it!
The ChristianHall Caine
Of what good were these hypocrisies, and whom did they deceive?
Conscience, CompleteHector Malot
Believe you that you can dupe me by your hypocrisies and base flatteries?
The Key to the Bront WorksJohn Malham-Dembleby
Shall we continue to close our eyes to the hypocrisies of the church?
Idling in ItalyJoseph Collins
What prohibitions, what hypocrisies, what responsibilities, what sorrows!
Soliloquies in EnglandGeorge Santayana
hypocrisy
- the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc, contrary to one's real character or actual behaviour, esp the pretence of virtue and piety
- an act or instance of this
Word Origin and History for hypocrisies
hypocrisy
c.1200, ipocrisie, from Old French ypocrisie, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Greek hypokrisis "acting on the stage, pretense," from hypokrinesthai "play a part, pretend," also "answer," from hypo- "under" (see sub-) + middle voice of krinein "to sift, decide" (see crisis). The sense evolution in Attic Greek is from "separate gradually" to "answer" to "answer a fellow actor on stage" to "play a part." The h- was restored in English 16c.
Hypocrisy is the art of affecting qualities for the purpose of pretending to an undeserved virtue. Because individuals and institutions and societies most often live down to the suspicions about them, hypocrisy and its accompanying equivocations underpin the conduct of life. Imagine how frightful truth unvarnished would be. [Benjamin F. Martin, "France in 1938," 2005]