as in misleading
tending or having power to deceive
delusive promises of high-paying jobs for low-skilled workers
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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
Many less attractive traits are also recorded: Charles could be uncommunicative and dilatory, evasive and mendacious, refractory, vindictive, obstinate, even outright wicked, though self-delusive about the motives of others.
—
R.j.w. Evans,
The New York Review of Books,
11 June 2020
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
Many less attractive traits are also recorded: Charles could be uncommunicative and dilatory, evasive and mendacious, refractory, vindictive, obstinate, even outright wicked, though self-delusive about the motives of others.
—
R.j.w. Evans,
The New York Review of Books,
11 June 2020
Recent Examples of Synonyms for delusive
Adjective
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This headline is so misleading.
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Pretending that’s not going to happen is misleading and wrong.
Adjective
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Despite criticism over opaque and deceptive practices, prediction markets’ election favorites won most of the time, a Washington Post analysis found; more liquid in betting markets improves their accuracy, economists told CNN, but could carry negative social costs.
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This is the essence of GPS spoofing, in which an attacker floods a GPS receiver with deceptive signals.
Adjective
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According to the department, at the time of the chase, Buban had multiple outstanding arrest warrants against him, including for being a felon in possession of a firearm, taking a vehicle without consent, false impersonation and petty theft.
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According to Peña, a producer relayed the false information to her through an earpiece during a live broadcast.
Cite this Entry
“Delusive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/delusive. Accessed 26 Jun. 2026.
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