deceptive
/dɪˈsɛp.tɪv/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.34 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Likely or attempting to deceive.
Example Sentences
- "deceptive practices"
- "Appearances can be deceptive."
- "But others declare that no Creature can be made or tranſmuted into a better or vvorſe, or transformed into another ſpecies or ſimilitude, by man, or devill. […] Martinus [i.e., Martin] Delrio the Jeſuit accounts this degeneration of Man into a Beaſt to be an illuſion, deceptive and repugnant to Nature; for, the ſoule of man cannot informe a beaſts body, […]"
- "[…] 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, language altogether deceptive, and hiding the deeper reality from our eyes"
- "[…] 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."
Etymology
From Middle French déceptif, from Latin dēceptīvus, from dēcipiō (“to deceive”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Inflected Forms
more deceptive (comparative)
most deceptive (superlative)
Derived Forms
Phrases
appearances are deceptive
deceptive advertising
deceptive cadence
deceptive cognate
self-deceptive
+ -ing