deception Definition
de·cep·tion (dē sep′s̸hən, di-)
noun
- the act or practice of deceiving
- the fact or condition of being deceived
- something that deceives, as an illusion, or is meant to deceive, as a fraud
Etymology: ME decepcioun < OFr deception < L deceptio < pp. of decipere: see deceive
deception Synonyms
deception
n.
The practice of deceiving
trickery, double-dealing, deceit, dishonesty, fraud, chicanery, subterfuge, duplicity, mendacity, untruth, dupery, insincerity, indirection, craftiness, circumvention, juggling, defraudation, treachery, treason, betrayal, pretense, disinformation, falsehood, trickiness, trumpery, beguilement, cozenage, humbug, hypocrisy, lying, sophism, deceitfulness, equivocation, prevarication, cunning, artifice, guile, misleading, deceiving, imposture, imposition, bamboozlement, snow job*, skullduggery*, flimflam*, blarney*, hanky-panky*; see also dishonesty, hypocrisy.Antonyms
honesty*, frankness*, sincerity. * A deceptive act
deception is applied to anything that deceives, whether by design or illusion; fraud suggests deliberate deception in dishonestly depriving a person of property, rights, etc.; subterfuge suggests an artifice or stratagem used to hide one's true objective, to evade something, or to gain some end; trickery implies the use of tricks or ruses in deceiving others; chicanery implies the use of clever but tricky talk or action, esp. in legal actions
deception Usage Examples
Converse of object
- perpetrate: Meanwhile, Brian ponders perpetrating a little deception of his own, much to David's disquiet.
- practice: We know of no other carpet in which the designer has practiced such subtle deception.
- detect: The system built was tested by making an attempt to detect deception.
- expose: I shall expose thy deceptions, in the name of the living God!
- discover: A few days later, when he discovered the deception, he was ready to destroy the lot of them.
- involve: In these proceedings the same issue was involved deception of the public.
Converse of subject
obtain: She successfully represented a client in proceedings against a solicitor and recovered the repayment of monies obtained by deception and costs.
Adjective modifier
- artful: For artful deception need to get driving looking at takes a certain.
- deliberate: In our opinion this is deliberate deception by the council to conceal the extent of the plans.
- intentional: Intentional deception of the participants over the purpose and general nature of the investigation should be avoided whenever possible.
- cruel: Surely society has a duty to protect the gullible from such cruel deception.
- attempted: Ingram was convicted of one offense of deception, and one of attempted deception perpetrated against the Direct Line Insurance Company.
- elaborate: An elaborate deception spun by all-powerful machines of artificial intelligence that control the human population.
Modifies a noun
- operation: A massive deception operation pointing to an attack on Calais also helped to keep the German focus away from the Normandy beaches.
- campaign: The public is the major threat to their strategy, which explains why they resort to public deception campaigns.
- effort: Any support PSYOP can add to the deception effort will help protect the FARPs.
- plan: Often, movements in the corps area are an integral part of the corps deception plan.
- charge: Channel Four said that the program had responsibly and fully dealt with Mr Jenkins ' deception charge.
Noun used with modifier
self: Who was up to their neck in self deception now?
Preposition: of
public: In these proceedings the same issue was involved deception of the public.
Browse dictionary entries near deception
- ‹ decentralize
- ‹ decenter
- ‹ decent
- ‹ decennium
- ‹ decennial
- ‹ decennary
- ‹ decency
- ‹ decemvirate
- ‹ decemvir
- ‹ Decembrist
- deceptive ›
- decerebrate ›
- decertify ›
- deci- ›
- decibel ›
- decibels per kilometer ›
- decide ›
- decided ›
- decidedly ›
- deciding ›

