Library / English Dictionary

DECEIT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of deceiving

Synonyms:

deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("deceit" is a kind of...):

falsification; misrepresentation (a willful perversion of facts)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deceit"):

fakery (the act of faking (or the product of faking))

indirection (deceitful action that is not straightforward)

chicane; chicanery; guile; shenanigan; trickery; wile (the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them))

double-dealing; duplicity (acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another)

cheat; cheating (a deception for profit to yourself)

delusion; head game; illusion (the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas)

feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)

impersonation; imposture (pretending to be another person)

obscurantism (a deliberate act intended to make something obscure)

bluff; four flush (the act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards)

take-in (the act of taking in as by fooling or cheating or swindling someone)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of being fraudulent

Synonyms:

deceit; fraudulence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("deceit" is a kind of...):

dishonesty (the quality of being dishonest)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A misleading falsehood

Synonyms:

deceit; deception; misrepresentation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("deceit" is a kind of...):

falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deceit"):

equivocation; evasion (a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth)

duplicity; fraudulence (a fraudulent or duplicitous representation)

hanky panky; hocus-pocus; jiggery-pokery; skulduggery; skullduggery; slickness; trickery (verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way)

blind; subterfuge (something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity)

dissembling; feigning; pretence; pretense (pretending with intention to deceive)

snow job (a long and elaborate misrepresentation)

exaggeration; magnification; overstatement (making to seem more important than it really is)

facade; window dressing (a showy misrepresentation intended to conceal something unpleasant)

half-truth (a partially true statement intended to deceive or mislead)

humbug; snake oil (communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive)

bill of goods (communication (written or spoken) that persuades someone to accept something untrue or undesirable)

Credits

 Context examples: 

He had previously communicated his plan to the former, who aided the deceit by quitting his house, under the pretence of a journey and concealed himself, with his daughter, in an obscure part of Paris.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Deceit is, indeed, a sad fault in a child, said Mr. Brocklehurst; it is akin to falsehood, and all liars will have their portion in the lake burning with fire and brimstone; she shall, however, be watched, Mrs. Reed.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)