dissembling

/dɪˈsɛmblɪŋ/

Other forms: dissemblings

Dissembling is a tricky way to say "deceiving." If you're good at pretending and lying, you're an expert at dissembling.

Dissembling is a fancy word for being tricky, slippery, and deceitful. This word isn't just for people who lie and commit fraud: it specifically has to do with pretending. If you act like you're sorry you ate the last cookie, but you're secretly happy about it, you're dissembling. A good con man needs to be a master of dissembling. Politicians get accused of dissembling all the time because their speeches sound so phony.

Definitions of dissembling

1. noun

   pretending with intention to deceive
   synonyms: feigning, pretence, pretense

   types:

   bluff

   pretense that your position is stronger than it really is

   pretext, stalking-horse

   something serving to conceal plans; a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason

   hypocrisy, lip service

   an expression of agreement that is not supported by real conviction

   putoff

   a pretext for delay or inaction

   crocodile tears

   a hypocritical display of sorrow; false or insincere weeping

   type of:

   deceit, deception, misrepresentation

   a misleading falsehood
2. noun

   the act of deceiving
   synonyms: deceit, deception, dissimulation

   types:

   fakery

   the act of faking (or the product of faking)

   indirection

   deceitful action that is not straightforward

   chicane, chicanery, guile, shenanigan, trickery, wile

   the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them)

   double-dealing, duplicity

   acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another

   cheat, cheating

   a deception for profit to yourself

   delusion, head game, illusion

   the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas

   feigning, pretence, pretending, pretense, simulation

   the act of giving a false appearance

   impersonation, imposture

   pretending to be another person

   obscurantism

   a deliberate act intended to make something obscure

   bluff, four flush

   the act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards

   take-in

   the act of taking in as by fooling or cheating or swindling someone

   dupery, fraud, fraudulence, hoax, humbug, put-on

   something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage

   jugglery

   artful trickery designed to achieve an end

   gerrymander

   an act of gerrymandering (dividing a voting area so as to give your own party an unfair advantage)

   appearance, show

   pretending that something is the case in order to make a good impression

   make-believe, pretend

   the enactment of a pretense

   affectation, affectedness, mannerism, pose

   a deliberate pretense or exaggerated display

   masquerade

   making a false outward show

   type of:

   falsification, misrepresentation

   a willful perversion of facts