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Disingenuous vs Deceive - What's the difference?

disingenuous | deceive |

As an adjective disingenuous

is not noble; unbecoming true honor or dignity; mean; unworthy; fake or deceptive.

As a verb deceive is

to trick or mislead.

disingenuous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Not noble; unbecoming true honor or dignity; mean; unworthy; fake or deceptive.
  • Not ingenuous; not frank or open; uncandid; unworthily or meanly artful.
  • * 1726 , , The Poems of Alexander Pope: The Odyssey of Homer. Books XIII-XXIV , edited by Maynard Mack, Methuen, 1969, volume 10, page 378:
  • I am not so vain as to think these Remarks free from faults, nor so disingenuous as not to confess them:
  • Assuming a pose of naivete to make a point or for deception.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

    Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "disingenuous" is often applied: attempt, argument, statement, conduct, people, excuse, question, assertion.

    Derived terms

    * disingenuously * disingenuousness

    deceive

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (obsolete)

    Verb

    (deceiv)
  • To trick or mislead.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=April 26 , author=Tasha Robinson , title=Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits : , work=The Onion AV Club citation , page= , passage=Hungry for fame and the approval of rare-animal collector Queen Victoria (Imelda Staunton), Darwin deceives the Captain and his crew into believing they can get enough booty to win the pirate competition by entering Polly in a science fair. So the pirates journey to London in cheerful, blinkered defiance of the Queen, a hotheaded schemer whose royal crest reads simply “I hate pirates.” }}

    Synonyms

    * See also