| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | insincere |
| Synonyms: | artful, crooked, cunning, deceitful, designing, dishonest, duplicitous, false, feigned, foxy, guileful, indirect, insidious, mendacious, oblique, shifty, sly, tricky, two-faced, uncandid, underhanded, unfair, unfrank, wily |
| Notes: | ingenuous means 'naïve, easily deceived, unsuspecting; foolish' - and disingenuous means 'calculating, deceptive' |
| Antonyms: | frank, honest, ingenuous, naive, sincere |
| Main Entry: | deceitful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest, insincere |
| Synonyms: | artful, astucious, astute, beguiling, clandestine, counterfeit, crafty, cunning, deceiving, deceptive, delusive, delusory, designing, disingenuous, double-dealing, duplicitous, fallacious, false, feline, foxy, fraudulent, furtive, guileful, hypocritical, illusory, impostrous, indirect, insidious, knavish, lying, mendacious, misleading, rascal, roguish, shifty, slick, sly, sneaky, stealthy, subtle, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, underhand, underhanded, untrustworthy, untruthful, wily |
| Notes: | deceitful means intended to deceive or cheat while deceptive means causing one to believe what is not true or likely to mislead someone |
| Antonyms: | faithful, frank, honest, loyal, open, sincere, trustworthy, truthful, upright |
| Main Entry: | deceptive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, astucious, beguiling, bum*, catchy, crafty, cunning, deceitful, deceiving, deluding, delusive, delusory, designing, disingenuous, fake, fallacious, false, fishy, foxy, fraudulent, illusory, imposturous, indirect, insidious, lying, misleading, mock, oblique, off*, phony, plausible, rascal, roguish, scheming, seeming, serpentine, shifty, slick, slippery, sly, sneaky, snide, specious, spurious, subtle, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, underhand, underhanded, unreliable, wily |
| Notes: | deceitful means intended to deceive or cheat while deceptive means causing one to believe what is not true or likely to mislead someone |
| Antonyms: | forthright, frank, honest, open, truthful, upright |
| Main Entry: | insidious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | sneaky, tricky |
| Synonyms: | Machiavellian, artful, astute, corrupt, crafty, crooked, cunning, dangerous, deceitful, deceptive, deep, designing, dishonest, disingenuous, duplicitous, ensnaring, false, foxy, guileful, intriguing, like a snake in the grass, perfidious, perilous, secret, slick, sly, smooth, snaky, sneaking, stealthy, subtle, surreptitious, treacherous, wily, wormlike |
| Notes: | insidious (Latin insidere 'to lie in wait for,' from sedere 'sit') describes stealthy, treacherous behavior; invidious behavior arouses ill will, animosity, or hostility |
| Antonyms: | fair, honest, open, sincere |
| Main Entry: | insincere |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest, pretended |
| Synonyms: | ambidextrous, backhanded, deceitful, deceptive, devious, disingenuous, dissembling, dissimulating, double, double-dealing, duplicitous, evasive, faithless, fake, false, hollow, hypocritical, lying, mendacious, perfidious, phony, pretentious, put-on, shifty, slick, sly, snide, two-faced, unfaithful, untrue, untruthful |
| Antonyms: | forthright, frank, honest, open, sincere |
| Main Entry: | misleading |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | deceptive, confusing |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, beguiling, bewildering, casuistical, catchy, confounding, deceitful, deceiving, deluding, delusive, delusory, demagogic, disingenuous, distracting, evasive, fallacious, false, inaccurate, perplexing, puzzling, sophistical, specious, spurious, tricky, wrong |
| Antonyms: | honest, truthful |
| Main Entry: | sneaky |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | underhanded, dishonest |
| Synonyms: | base, contemptible, cowardly, deceitful, devious, disingenuous, double-dealing, duplicitous, furtive, guileful, indirect, low, malicious, mean, nasty, recreant, secretive, shifty, slippery, sly, sneaking, snide, stealthy, surreptitious, tricky, underhand, unreliable, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, yellow* |
| Antonyms: | aboveboard, candid, forthright, frank, honest |
| Main Entry: | mealy-mouthed |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | pretentious |
| Synonyms: | affected, deceptive, devious, disingenuous, equivocal, hypocritical, insincere |
| Main Entry: | ambidextrous |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | insincere |
| Synonyms: | deceitful, deceptive, disingenuous, double-dealing, hypocritical, left-handed |
| Notes: | though dexterous (skillful with the hands) is preferably spelled with two e's, ambidextrous has only one |