Deceive: Making Someone Believe What Is Not True
To deceive is to make someone believe something false. It is also a favourite spelling test, because it follows the i before e rule and its exception at once.
Deceive means to cause a false belief deliberately. It does not require a lie: you can deceive by silence, by implication, or by letting someone continue in an error you noticed. The offence is in the intention, not in the words.
- To mislead deliberately. *He deceived his investors for years.*
- To create a false impression. *Appearances can deceive.*
- To be unfaithful. *She had been deceiving him for months.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | deceive | Do not deceive yourself. |
| Noun | deception | A deliberate deception. |
| Adjective | deceptive | Deceptively simple. |
| Adjective | deceitful | A deceitful account. |
| Noun | deceit | A web of deceit. |
How it is used in a sentence
- Appearances can be deceptive.A proverb about judging by looks.
- He deceived himself into thinking it would pass.Deceive oneself — self-deception.
- The dish is deceptively simple.A famously ambiguous word — it may mean simpler or harder than it looks.
I before E, and where it fails
- Deceive, receive, ceiling, conceit — e before i after c, as the rule says
- Their, weird, seize, protein, caffeine — the rule fails entirely
- Science, ancient, sufficient — i before e even after c
- The rule works reliably only for words where the sound is *ee*
- Even then the exceptions are common enough that most style guides have given up on it
From Old French *deceivre*, from Latin *decipere*, to catch or ensnare, from *de* and *capere*, to take. The metaphor is of a trap: a deceived person has been caught.
Deceive or mislead?
Deceive always implies intent. Misleading can be accidental, which is why organisations prefer it when apologising.
What does deceptively simple mean?
It is genuinely ambiguous, and careful writers avoid it. Say simpler than it looks, or harder than it looks.