disingenuity
Feigned innocence, hidden motives
Disingenuity is the quality of being disingenuous—insincere, calculating, or falsely naive.
Someone acting with disingenuity pretends not to know something they know, or feigns innocence while pursuing hidden motives: The politician's disingenuity was obvious to everyone but his supporters.
The more common noun form is disingenuousness.
Disposition toward falsehood
- insincerityLack of genuine feeling
- duplicityDeliberate misleading behavior
- deceitfulnessDisposition to mislead
- guileSly, strategic dishonesty
cunning · artifice · trickery · subterfuge · slyness · craftiness · wiliness · bad faith
Deceptive outward appearance
- charadeAbsurd or obvious pretense
- masqueradeDeceptive act or costume party
- affectationArtificial behavior for effect
- posturingInsincere behavior for effect
feigning · hypocrisy · sham · fakery · false modesty · pose · playacting · front
False or misleading statement
- spinRapid rotation around axis
- distortionTwisting from original state
- half-truthDeceptive incomplete statement
- equivocationAmbiguous language avoiding commitment
obfuscation · misdirection · deflection · weasel words · doublespeak · sophistry · prevarication · selective truth
dishonesty
Disposition toward falsehood
- insincerityLack of genuine feeling
- duplicityDeliberate misleading behavior
- deceitfulnessDisposition to mislead
guile · cunning · artifice · trickery · subterfuge · slyness · craftiness · wiliness · bad faith · two-facedness
facade
Deceptive outward appearance
- charadeAbsurd or obvious pretense
- masqueradeDeceptive act or costume party
- affectationArtificial behavior for effect
posturing · feigning · hypocrisy · sham · fakery · false modesty · pose · playacting · front · veneer
misrepresentation
False or misleading statement
- spinRapid rotation around axis
- distortionTwisting from original state
- half-truthDeceptive incomplete statement
equivocation · obfuscation · misdirection · deflection · weasel words · doublespeak · sophistry · prevarication · selective truth · cherry-picking
disingenuityhonesty
Truthfulness, sincerity
sincerity · forthrightness · candor · genuineness · frankness
disingenuitygenuineness
Quality of being real
authenticity · sincerity · good faith · earnestness · wholeheartedness
genuine, genuinely, ingenuity, ingenious, disingenuous, genuineness, ingenuous, ingenuousness, ingenuously