deceit

• deceipt (obsolete)

Borrowed from Old French deceite, deçoite, from decevoir (“to deceive”), from Latin dēcipere (“to cheat, mislead”).

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈsiːt/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -iːt

deceit (plural deceits)

1. An act or practice intended to deceive; a trick.

   The whole conversation was merely a deceit.

2. An act of deceiving someone.
   • 1998, Mike Dixon-Kennedy, Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, page 125:

     Upon his return he killed Eriphyle for her vanity and deceit of him and his father.

3. (uncountable) The state of being deceitful or deceptive.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Psalms 10:7:

     His mouth is full of curſing, and deceit, and fraud : vnder his tongue is miſchiefe and vanitie.

4. (law) The tort or fraudulent representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth and with intent to induce reliance on it; the plaintiff justifiably relies on the deception, to his injury.

• (act or behavior intended to deceive): trick, fraud
• (act of deceiving): deception, trickery
• (state of being deceptive): underhandedness, deceptiveness, deceitfulness, dissimulation, fraudulence, trickery
• See also Thesaurus:deception

• deceitful