Word.ws English Dictionary

deceive

Syllables: de·ceive/dɪˈsiːv/

deceive verb: to trick or mislead.

Verb

deceive (third-person singular simple present deceives, present participle deceiving, simple past and past participle deceived)

  1. (transitive) To trick or mislead.
    • It feels painful to begin seeing clearly, that you’ve been deceived by the very people and institutions you trusted to guide you.
    • I know—for Death, who comes for me
      From regions of the blest afar,
      Where there is nothing to deceive,
      Hath left his iron gate ajar, […]1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems

deceive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

deceive in Hindi

trick or mislead
धोखा देना dhokhā denā

deceive in Tamil

trick or mislead
ஏமாற்று ēmāṟṟu

deceive in Urdu

trick or mislead
دھوکہ دینا dhokhā denā

deceive in Bengali

ঠকানো, ঠকান
More languagesFewer languages
deceive in Telugu
దగాచేయు dagācēyu, మోసగించు mōsagiñcu
deceive in Malayalam
കബളിപ്പിക്കുക kabaḷippikkuka, കണ്ണിൽ പൊടിയിടുക kaṇṇil poṭiyiṭuka, അഭിനയിക്കുക abhinayikkuka
deceive in Kannada
ಅಟಮಟಿಸು, ಆಳವಾಡು, ಉಕ್ಕೆ ವಿಸು, ಕಯ್ಕೊಡು
deceive in Gujarati
છેતરવા માટે
deceive in Sanskrit
गर्धयते gardhayate
deceive in Nepali
छक्याउनु chakyāunu
deceive in Tagalog
lokohin, linlangin, dayain
deceive in Arabic
خَدَعَ ḵadaʕa, غَشَّ ḡašša, غَرَّ ḡarra
deceive in Persian
فریب دادن farib dâdan, فریفتن fariftan
deceive in Thai
หลอก lɔ̀ɔk, โกง goong, หลอกลวง lɔ̀ɔk-luuang
deceive in Vietnamese
lừa, lừa bịp, bịp, lừa dối
deceive in Myanmar
ဖြားယောင်း hpra:yaung:

Examples of deceive in a sentence

  • Men are naturally exceeding prone to deceive themselves in the opinion they have of themselves.
  • She is clearly trying to deceive us, but to what end, I just can’t figure out.
  • This algebra problem may look very easy at first glance, but looks can be deceiving.

All 40 example sentences with deceive

Synonyms of deceive

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of deceive

Forms of deceive

third-person singular presentdeceives
present participledeceiving
past participledeceived
pastdeceived
alternative form (obsolete)deceave

Past tense of deceive: deceived

Origin of deceive

From Middle English deceyven, from Anglo-Norman deceivre, from Latin dēcipiō (“to deceive; beguile; entrap”), from dē- (“from”) + capiō (“to seize”); see captive. Compare conceive, perceive, receive. Displaced native Old English beswīcan.

Words formed from deceive

Phrases with deceive

Words that rhyme with deceive

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about deceive

What does deceive mean?
Deceive means to trick or mislead.
What is deceive in Hindi?
Deceive in Hindi is धोखा देना (dhokhā denā). See Deceive meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is deceive?
Deceive is a verb.
How do you pronounce deceive?
Deceive is pronounced /dɪˈsiːv/.
What is the past tense of deceive?
The past tense of deceive is deceived.

Words near deceive in the dictionary

  1. deceivability
  2. deceivable
  3. deceivableness
  4. deceivably
  5. deceivance
  6. deceive
  7. deceived
  8. deceiver
  9. deceivers
  10. deceives
  11. deceivest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: deceive (page history and authors); deceive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); അഭിനയിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); deceive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); deceive (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-deceive.ogg.

Cite this entry: “deceive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/deceive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.