Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The use of deceit.
  • noun The fact or state of being deceived.
  • noun A ruse; a trick.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of deceiving or misleading.
  • noun The state of being deceived or misled.
  • noun That which deceives; artifice; cheat: as, the scheme is all a deception.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of deceiving or misleading.
  • noun The state of being deceived or misled.
  • noun That which deceives or is intended to deceive; false representation; artifice; cheat; fraud.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An instance of actions and/or schemes fabricated to mislead and/or delude someone into errantly believing a lie or inaccuracy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of deceiving
  • noun an illusory feat; considered magical by naive observers
  • noun a misleading falsehood

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English decepcioun, from Old French deception, from Late Latin dēceptiō, dēceptiōn-, from Latin dēceptus, past participle of dēcipere, to deceive; see deceive.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Past participle of Latin decipere "deceive"; gerund form of to deceive.

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