hypocritical
adjective
hyp·o·crit·i·cal
ˌhi-pə-ˈkri-ti-kəl 
: characterized by behavior that contradicts what one claims to believe or feel : characterized by hypocrisy
said that it was hypocritical to demand respect from students without respecting them in return
a hypocritical gesture of modesty and virtue—
Robert Graves
Robert Graves
also
: being a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings : being a hypocrite
Examples of hypocritical in a Sentence
it's hypocritical to say mean things behind someone's back, and then to act nice when you want something from her
Recent Examples on the Web
Later Tuesday, Johnson said the violence in Los Angeles is not comparable to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and said Trump's mass pardons of Jan. 6 rioters were not hypocritical.
—Lauren Peller, ABC News, 10 June 2025
Against this backdrop, Iran is leveraging social media and state media to frame the U.S. as unstable and hypocritical—part of a broader strategy to weaken its global credibility amid deepening diplomatic tensions.
—Amanda Castro
shane Croucher
billal Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 June 2025
Camp offered sanctuary, a mode of performance that didn’t suffer hypocritical fools gladly.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2025
Now, instead of being a source of national pride, many elite universities have become a source of national division, with some Americans viewing them as decadent, hypocritical or even hostile to their values.
—Allison Schrager, Twin Cities, 3 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for hypocritical
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Lauren Peller, ABC News, 10 June 2025
Against this backdrop, Iran is leveraging social media and state media to frame the U.S. as unstable and hypocritical—part of a broader strategy to weaken its global credibility amid deepening diplomatic tensions.
—Amanda Castro
shane Croucher
billal Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 9 June 2025
Camp offered sanctuary, a mode of performance that didn’t suffer hypocritical fools gladly.
—Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 3 June 2025
Now, instead of being a source of national pride, many elite universities have become a source of national division, with some Americans viewing them as decadent, hypocritical or even hostile to their values.
—Allison Schrager, Twin Cities, 3 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for hypocritical
Cite this Entry
“Hypocritical.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hypocritical. Accessed 14 Jul. 2025.
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