| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | deceptive |
| Synonyms: | cheating, deceitful, dishonest, double-dealing, shady, two-faced, two-timing |
| 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: | devious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest, crafty |
| Synonyms: | artful, calculating, crooked, deceitful, double-dealing, duplicitous, errant, erring, evasive, faking one out, fishy, foxy*, fraudulent, guileful, indirect, insidious, insincere, not straightforward, oblique, obliquitous, playing games, playing politics, put on, roundabout, scheming, shady, shifty, shrewd, sly, sneaking, sneaky, surreptitious, treacherous, tricky, underhanded, wily |
| Antonyms: | artless, frank, honest, open, straightforward, trustworthy, truthful |
| Main Entry: | disingenuous |
| 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: | double-dealing |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | cheating, deceitful |
| Synonyms: | ambidextrous, crooked, dishonest, double, duplicitous, fraudulent, hypocritical, insincere, left- handed, lying, perfidious, sneaky, swindling, treacherous, tricky, two-faced, two-timing, underhanded, untrustworthy, wily |
| Antonyms: | forthright, honest, truthful |
| Main Entry: | false |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest, hypocritical |
| Synonyms: | apostate, base, beguiling, canting, corrupt, crooked, deceitful, deceiving, deceptive, deluding, delusive, devious, dishonorable, disloyal, double-dealing, duplicitous, faithless, falsehearted, forsworn, foul, lying, malevolent, malicious, mean, misleading, mythomaniac, perfidious, perjured, rascally, recreant, renegade, scoundrelly, traitorous, treacherous, treasonable, two-faced, underhanded, unfaithful, unscrupulous, untrustworthy, venal, villainous, wicked |
| Notes: | fallacious means intended to deceive; fallible means liable to make a mistake or to be inaccurate or erroneous; false means not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality, or deliberately deceptive, or not genuine or real |
| Antonyms: | genuine, honest, just, reliable, right, straight, true, truthful |
| Main Entry: | fraudulent |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | deceptive, false |
| Synonyms: | bamboozling, counterfeit, crafty, criminal, crooked, deceitful, devious, dishonest, dishonorable, double-dealing, duplicitous, fake, forged, mock, phony, pseudo, sham*, spurious, swindling, treacherous, tricky |
| Antonyms: | authentic, genuine, honest, real, valid |
| Main Entry: | hypocritical |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | deceitful, pretending |
| Synonyms: | affected, artificial, assuming, bland, canting, captious, caviling, deceptive, deluding, dissembling, double, double-dealing, duplicitous, faithless, false, feigning, fishy, fraudulent, glib, hollow, insincere, jivey, left-handed, lying, moralistic, oily, pharisaical, phony, pietistic, pious, sanctimonious, self-righteous, smooth, smooth-spoken, smooth-tongued, snide, specious, spurious, two-faced, unctuous, unnatural, unreliable |
| Antonyms: | actual, authentic, forthright, honest, just, real, reliable, righteous, sincere, truthful, upright |
| Main Entry: | indirect |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | roundabout; unintended |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, ancillary, circuitous, circular, circumlocutory, collateral, complicated, contingent, crooked, devious, discursive, duplicitous, erratic, eventual, implied, incidental, long, long way home, long-drawn-out, long-winded, meandering, oblique, obscure, out-of-the-way, periphrastic, rambling, secondary, serpentine, sidelong, sinister, sinuous, snaking, sneaking, sneaky, subsidiary, tortuous, twisting, underhand, vagrant, wandering, winding, zigzag |
| Antonyms: | direct, straight, straightforward |