perfidy
/ˈpɜː.fɪ.di/US/ˈpɝ.fɪ.di/
perfidy noun: a state or act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust.
Noun
perfidy (countable and uncountable, plural perfidies)
- A state or act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust.
- An illegitimate act of deception, such as using symbols like the Red Cross or white flag in a false claim of surrender to gain proximity to an enemy for purposes of attack.
- Stratagems must be carefully distinguished strategy from perfidy, since the former are allowed, whereas the latter is prohibited.1921, Lassa Oppenheim with Ronald Francis Roxburgh, International law: a treatise, page 229
- Abuse of a protective emblem amounts to perfidy and constitutes a war crime under the customary law of armed conflict.1993, Leslie C. Green, The contemporary law of armed conflict, page 89
- A state or act of deceit.
- Germans could not get over the perfidy of it. It was unbelievable that the English, having degenerated to the stage where suffragettes heckled the Prime Minister and defied the police, were going to fight.1962, Barbara Wertheim Tuchman, The Guns of August, page 154
- Honda Motor Co. is the latest victim of e-mail perfidy, which started when a phony chain letter promised that the automaker would give away free cars.2000 July 17, “Honda becomes chain letter victim”, in eWeek
perfidy meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
perfidy in Tamil
- நம்பிக்கை அழிப்பு, நம்பிக்கை மோசம், நயவஞ்சகம், துரோகம்
perfidy in Urdu
- فتنہ
perfidy in Bengali
- প্রতারণা, বিশ্বাসঘাতকতা
perfidy in Malayalam
- വിശ്വാസവഞ്ചന, സമയഭംഗം, ചതി
More languagesFewer languages
- perfidy in Kannada
- ಎರಡುಬಗೆತ, ಎರಡೆಣಿಕೆ
- perfidy in Persian
- بیوفایی bi-vafâyi
Examples of perfidy in a sentence
- Ruses of war are legitimate so long as they do not involve treachery or perfidy on the part of the belligerent resorting to them.2008, Sidney Axinn, A Moral Military, page 84:
- So, to what extent could cyberattacks count as perfidy and therefore be illegal given international humanitarian law?2012 June 5, Patrick Lin, Neil Rowe, Fritz Allhoff, “Is It Possible to Wage a Just Cyberwar?”, in The Atlantic:
- Letterman roared about the perfidy of lying politicos.2008 October 16, “McCain expected to make amends on Letterman show”, in Los Angeles Times:
Synonyms of perfidy
- betrayal
- treachery
- perfidiousness
- breach of promise
- breach of trust
- double-dealing
- Judas kiss
- stab in the back
- tergiversation
- treacherousness
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- treason
- underhandedness
- trickery
- deceit
- deceitfulness
- deceptiveness
- dissimulation
- duplicity
- fraudulence
- deception
- imposition
- hype
- dupery
- fiddle
- fetch
- hocus-pocus
- jugglery
- legerdemain
- list
- mislead
- prestidigitation
- ruse
- sleight of hand
- subterfuge
- prodition
- Punic faith
- swike
- traitory
- fraudulency
- rinky-dink
Forms of perfidy
| plural | perfidies |
|---|
Origin of perfidy
From Middle French perfidie, from Latin perfidia from perfidus (“faithless, treacherous, false”), from fides (“faith”); related to, for example, English fidelity.
Questions about perfidy
- What does perfidy mean?
- Perfidy means a state or act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust.
- What is perfidy in Tamil?
- Perfidy in Tamil is நம்பிக்கை அழிப்பு, நம்பிக்கை மோசம், நயவஞ்சகம். See Perfidy meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use perfidy in a sentence?
- Ruses of war are legitimate so long as they do not involve treachery or perfidy on the part of the belligerent resorting to them.
- What part of speech is perfidy?
- Perfidy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce perfidy?
- Perfidy is pronounced /ˈpɜː.fɪ.di/ (UK).
- What is the plural of perfidy?
- The plural of perfidy is perfidies.
Words near perfidy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: perfidy (page history and authors); perfidy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perfidy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perfidy (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perfidy (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perfidy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-perfidy.wav.
Cite this entry: “perfidy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perfidy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.