deceptive

See also: déceptive

English

Etymology

From Middle French déceptif, from Latin dēceptīvus, from dēcipiō (“I deceive”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪ.ˈsɛp.tɪv/

• Audio (US)

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Adjective

deceptive (comparative more deceptive, superlative most deceptive)

1. Likely or attempting to deceive.

   Synonym: misleading

   deceptive practices

   Appearances can be deceptive.

   • 1653, John Bulwer, Anthropometamorphosis, London: William Hunt, Scene 24, p. 521,^[1]

     […] others declare that no Creature can be made or transmuted into a better or worse, or transformed into another species […] and Martinus Delrio the Jesuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beast to be an illusion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature;

   • 1789, Thomas Holcroft (translator), The History of My Own Times by Frederick the Great, London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, Part 1, Chapter 12, p. 163,^[2]

     […] at the opening of the campaign, the French, after various deceptive attempts on different places, suddenly invested Tournay.

   • 1846, Richard Chenevix Trench, Notes on the Miracles of Our Lord, London: John W. Parker, 2nd ed., 1847, Preliminary Essay, Chapter 2, p. 10,^[3]

     language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes

   • 1978, Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Chapter 2, p. 13,^[4]

     […] it is characteristic of TB that many of its symptoms are deceptive—liveliness that comes from enervation, rosy cheeks that look like a sign of health but come from fever—and an upsurge of vitality may be a sign of approaching death.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:deceptive

Derived terms

• deceptive advertising
• deceptive cadence
• deceptive cognate
• deceptively
• deceptiveness
• deceptivity

 

Related terms

Related terms →

• deceit
• deceive

• deception

Translations

misleading, attempting to deceive

• Asturian: engañosu, engañador
• Bulgarian: измамен (bg) (izmamen), заблуждаващ (bg) (zabluždavašt)
• Catalan: enganyós (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 迷惑的 (zh) (míhuò de)

• Czech: klamný, zavádějící, ošidný, matoucí, falešný (cs), podvodný
• Dutch: bedrieglijk (nl), onoprecht (nl), misleidend (nl)
• Finnish: petollinen (fi), harhaanjohtava (fi)
• French: trompeur (fr), qui induit en erreur, illusoire (fr), mensonger (fr)
• Galician: enganoso
• German: betrügerisch (de), irreführend (de), trügerisch (de)

• Greek:

  Ancient: ἀπατηλός (apatēlós)

• Hungarian: megtévesztő (hu)
• Irish: fabhtach
• Italian: ingannevole (it)
• Jamaican Creole: ginnal, samfie
• Japanese: 欺瞞的 (ぎまんてき, gimanteki)
• Latin: fallax, fallens, deceptivus, captiōsus
• Persian: نیرنگ‌باز‎ (neyrangbāz)
• Portuguese: enganoso (pt), enganador (pt)
• Russian: обма́нчивый (ru) (obmánčivyj)
• Sanskrit: द्रुह्वन् (sa) (druhvan)
• Scottish Gaelic: mealltach, carach, cealgach
• Spanish: engañoso (es), engañador
• Swedish: missledande, missvisande (sv)