as in to pretend
to take on a false or deceptive appearance
as an actress she had been trained to dissimulate, so she had no trouble hiding her true feelings offstage as well
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Recent Examples of dissimulate
The result is that Republican politicians dissimulate much more, and of course there is no comparable primary competition.
—
Tyler Cowen, Twin Cities, 5 July 2019
Tyler Cowen, Twin Cities, 5 July 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissimulate
pretend
Verb
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To pretend as if everyone doesn’t recognize him.—
Mirin Fader,
New York Times,
7 Jan. 2026
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Parents reported that their children loved playing with the original Nékojita FuFu, pretending to fan their faces and blow-dry their hair.—
Sujita Sinha,
Interesting Engineering,
6 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Dissimulate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissimulate. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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