Synonyms of delusive

delusive

adjective

di-ˈlü-siv 

as in misleading

tending or having power to deceive

delusive promises of high-paying jobs for low-skilled workers

Synonyms & Similar Words

• misleading
• deceptive
• false
• deceitful
• specious
• delusory
• incorrect
• ambiguous
• fallacious
• beguiling
• deceiving
• deluding
• inaccurate
• fraudulent
• subtle
• crooked
• cunning
• treacherous
• wily
• artificial
• dishonest
• subtile
• perplexing
• artful
• trick
• faithless
• puzzling
• mendacious
• crafty
• counterfeit
• wrong
• devious
• lying
• confounding
• shifty
• slick
• sly
• tricky
• sneaky
• untrustworthy
• spurious
• foxy
• distracting
• shady
• insidious
• forged
• untruthful
• guileful
• underhanded
• duplicitous
• bewildering
• underhand
• perfidious
• fake
• feigned
• evasive
• bogus
• insincere
• phony
• knavish
• hypocritical
• equivocal
• sham
• trickish
• ambidextrous
• circuitous
• dissembling
• jive
• sneaking
• fast
• defrauding
• double-dealing
• backhanded
• two-faced
• left-handed

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• straightforward
• forthright
• plain
• direct
• candid
• explanatory
• frank
• open
• nondeceptive
• aboveboard
• outspoken
• illuminating
• straight
• revealing
• revelatory
• truthful
• openhearted
• clarifying
• free-spoken
• plainspoken
• honest
• trustworthy
• elucidative
• foursquare

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of delusive

This isn’t callousness or delusive optimism but, rather, a rebellion against the suffocating expectation that the elderly have foreclosed the possibility of joy. — Hillary Kelly, The New Yorker, 21 Feb. 2024

To separate art from its historical framework is futile, and to reject it in an effort to censor past violence is a delusive act of virtue signaling. — WSJ, 5 July 2022

Much of formal education over the past 50 years or so, especially in the humanities, has become a delusive exercise in mass evasion of this discomfiting truth. — Tracy Lee Simmons, National Review, 15 Oct. 2020