Adjacent Words

Deception definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DECEP'TION, n.
1. The act of deceiving or misleading.
All deception is a misapplication of the established signs used to communicate thoughts.
2. The state of being deceived or misled. Incautious and inexperienced youth is peculiarly exposed to deception.
3. Artifice practiced; cheat; as, a scheme is alla deception.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a misleading falsehood [syn: misrepresentation, deceit, deception]
2: the act of deceiving [syn: deception, deceit, dissembling, dissimulation]
3: an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers [syn: magic trick, conjuring trick, trick, magic, legerdemain, conjuration, thaumaturgy, illusion, deception]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English decepcioun, from Anglo-French deception, from Late Latin deception-, deceptio, from Latin decipere to deceive Date: 15th century 1. a. the act of deceiving b. the fact or condition of being deceived 2. something that deceives ; trick <a clever deception> • deceptional adjective Synonyms: deception, fraud, double-dealing, subterfuge, trickery mean the acts or practices of one who deliberately deceives. deception may or may not imply blameworthiness, since it may suggest cheating or merely tactical resource <magicians are masters of deception>. fraud always implies guilt and often criminality in act or practice <indicted for fraud>. double-dealing suggests treachery or at least action contrary to a professed attitude <a go-between suspected of double-dealing>. subterfuge suggests the adoption of a stratagem or the telling of a lie in order to escape guilt or to gain an end <obtained the papers by subterfuge>. trickery implies ingenious acts intended to dupe or cheat <resorted to trickery to gain their ends>.

U.S. Military Dictionary

Those measures designed to mislead the enemy by manipulation, distortion, or falsification of evidence to induce the enemy to react in a manner prejudicial to the enemy's interests. See also counterdeception; military deception. (JP 3-13.4)

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the act or an instance of deceiving; the process of being deceived. 2 a thing that deceives; a trick or sham. Etymology: ME f. OF or LL deceptio f. decipere (as DECEIT)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Deception De*cep"tion, n. [F. d['e]ception, L. deceptio, fr. decipere, deceptum. See Deceive.] 1. The act of deceiving or misleading. --South. 2. The state of being deceived or misled. There is one thing relating either to the action or enjoyments of man in which he is not liable to deception. --South. 3. That which deceives or is intended to deceive; false representation; artifice; cheat; fraud. There was of course room for vast deception. --Motley. Syn: Deception, Deceit, Fraud, Imposition. Usage: Deception usually refers to the act, and deceit to the habit of the mind; hence we speak of a person as skilled in deception and addicted to deceit. The practice of deceit springs altogether from design, and that of the worst kind; but a deception does not always imply aim and intention. It may be undesigned or accidental. An imposition is an act of deception practiced upon some one to his annoyance or injury; a fraud implies the use of stratagem, with a view to some unlawful gain or advantage.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(deceptions) Deception is the act of deceiving someone or the state of being deceived by someone. He admitted conspiring to obtain property by deception... N-VAR

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Imposture, imposition. See deceit. 2. Cheat, ruse, wile, stratagem, chouse. See trick.

Moby Thesaurus

acting, affectation, airy nothing, appearance, artifice, attitudinizing, autism, befooling, bluff, bluffing, bubble, burial, burying, casuistry, cheat, cheating, chicane, chicanery, chimera, clouding, color, coloring, concealedness, concealment, covering, covering up, covertness, cunning, darkening, daydream, deceit, deceptiveness, defrauding, deluded belief, delusion, dereism, dirt, disguise, dishonesty, dissemblance, dissembling, dissimulation, double-dealing, dream, dream vision, dreamland, dreamworld, dupery, duping, duplicity, equivocation, facade, face, fake, fakement, fakery, faking, false air, false belief, false front, false show, falsity, feigning, feint, flam, four-flushing, fraud, front, gilt, gloss, guile, gulling, gyp, hallucination, hanky-panky, hiddenness, hiding, hoax, hoodwinking, humbug, humbuggery, hypocrisy, ignis fatuus, illusion, impose, imposture, indirection, interment, intrigue, invisibility, knavery, manipulation, masking, masquerade, meretriciousness, mirage, misbelief, misconception, mystification, obscuration, obscurement, occultation, ostentation, outward show, overreaching, pipe dream, playacting, pose, posing, posture, pretense, pretension, pretext, putting away, representation, ride, rip-off, ruse, screening, secrecy, secretion, seeming, self-deceit, self-deception, self-delusion, sell, semblance, sham, sharp practice, show, simulacrum, simulation, snow job, sophism, sophistry, speciousness, spoof, spuriousness, stratagem, subterfuge, tergiversation, treachery, trick, trickery, trip, uncommunicativeness, vapor, varnish, wile, window dressing, wrong impression