adj ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Likely or attempting to deceive.

   "deceptive practices"

Adjective

1. 1
   designed to deceive or mislead either deliberately or inadvertently wordnet
2. 2
   causing one to believe what is not true or fail to believe what is true wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

misleadingdeceivingunrealaberrantabroadadrift

Antonyms

All antonyms

honestnonfraudulentundeceitfulundeceptive

Example

More examples

"Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised."

Etymology

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

Related phrases

appearances are deceptivedeceptive advertisingdeceptive cadencedeceptive cognateself-deceptive

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.