DECEPTION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does deception mean? 

• DECEPTION (noun)
  The noun DECEPTION has 3 senses:

1. a misleading falsehood

2. the act of deceiving

3. an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers

  Familiarity information: DECEPTION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DECEPTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A misleading falsehood

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

deceit; deception; misrepresentation

Hypernyms ("deception" is a kind of...):

falsehood; falsity; untruth (a false statement)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deception"):

equivocation; evasion (a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth)

duplicity; fraudulence (a fraudulent or duplicitous representation)

hanky panky; hocus-pocus; jiggery-pokery; skulduggery; skullduggery; slickness; trickery (verbal misrepresentation intended to take advantage of you in some way)

blind; subterfuge (something intended to misrepresent the true nature of an activity)

dissembling; feigning; pretence; pretense (pretending with intention to deceive)

snow job (a long and elaborate misrepresentation)

exaggeration; magnification; overstatement (making to seem more important than it really is)

facade; window dressing (a showy misrepresentation intended to conceal something unpleasant)

half-truth (a partially true statement intended to deceive or mislead)

humbug; snake oil (communication (written or spoken) intended to deceive)

bill of goods (communication (written or spoken) that persuades someone to accept something untrue or undesirable)

Derivation:

deceive (be false to; be dishonest with)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of deceiving

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

deceit; deception; dissembling; dissimulation

Hypernyms ("deception" is a kind of...):

falsification; misrepresentation (a willful perversion of facts)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deception"):

take-in (the act of taking in as by fooling or cheating or swindling someone)

bluff; four flush (the act of bluffing in poker; deception by a false show of confidence in the strength of your cards)

obscurantism (a deliberate act intended to make something obscure)

impersonation; imposture (pretending to be another person)

feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)

cheat; cheating (a deception for profit to yourself)

double-dealing; duplicity (acting in bad faith; deception by pretending to entertain one set of intentions while acting under the influence of another)

chicane; chicanery; guile; shenanigan; trickery; wile (the use of tricks to deceive someone (usually to extract money from them))

indirection (deceitful action that is not straightforward)

fakery (the act of faking (or the product of faking))

delusion; head game; illusion (the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas)

Derivation:

deceive (cause someone to believe an untruth)

deceive (be false to; be dishonest with)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

conjuration; conjuring trick; deception; illusion; legerdemain; magic; magic trick; thaumaturgy; trick

Hypernyms ("deception" is a kind of...):

performance (the act of presenting a play or a piece of music or other entertainment)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "deception"):

prestidigitation; sleight of hand (manual dexterity in the execution of tricks)

card trick (a trick performed with playing cards)

 Context examples 

I must keep up my deception for at least a little time longer, otherwise here was evidently an end of the interview.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"This is not thy deception, nor thy witchcraft: it is the work of nature. She was roused, and did—no miracle—but her best."

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It cannot be doubted that Sir Walter and Elizabeth were shocked and mortified by the loss of their companion, and the discovery of their deception in her.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The doctor has certainly played the game for all it is worth, and one would like to know the reason for such elaborate deception.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

To repay my confidence with systematic deception, for her sake, and quit me for her!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But the deception could not be kept up forever.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I do not know by what base deceptions he lured her away from me.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That she could be in any danger from the deception never entered my head.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

How to understand the deceptions she had been thus practising on herself, and living under!

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

All the time he kept smiling and putting his tongue out in the most guilty, embarrassed manner, so that a child could have told that he was bent on some deception.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)