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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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1
as in deception
the inclination or practice of misleading others through lies or trickery
got whatever she wanted through shameless dissimulation
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in deceit
the pretending of having virtues, principles, or beliefs that one in fact does not have
teenagers indulging in dissimulation simply in order to be one of the in crowd
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of dissimulate
Tyler Cowen, Twin Cities, 5 July 2019
Verb
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissimulate
Verb
-
Which is to say that to dream the impossible dream is one thing, but to pretend that its reality is quite another.—
Ed Simon
September 22,
Literary Hub,
22 Sep. 2025
-
Even the generative AIs that pretend to make new things today are merely regurgitating words, phrases, and pictures that were created and shared by people.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
22 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
So, perhaps the issue is the deception and not the expense.—
R. Eric Thomas,
Mercury News,
20 Sep. 2025
-
But with this shift comes a new era of digital deception.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
20 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Big Oil giant Shell accused Venture Global of deceit—not disruption—in a contract dispute.—
Jordan Blum,
Fortune,
25 Sep. 2025
-
In fact, an element of deceit might be lurking as well.—
Georgia Nicols,
Denver Post,
18 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Of course, the retort is that this would be irritating and exasperating to be continually deluged with alerts about AI deceptiveness.—
Lance Eliot,
Forbes.com,
24 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
The band sets aside the winks and retro affectations for something unadorned and honest.—
Sarah Grant,
Rolling Stone,
19 Aug. 2025
-
The scenic appeal is undeniable, nature’s majestic prose both frames and dwarfs the tumultuous affectations of the characters.—
Holly Jones,
Variety,
11 Aug. 2025
Noun
-
Federico Marchetti, the Italian fashion entrepreneur, is a master of sprezzatura—the courtier’s art of cloaking ambition and cunning in an air of guileless nonchalance.—
John Seabrook,
New Yorker,
29 Sep. 2025
-
Despite being outnumbered 50-to-1 by the Five Families of the Italian mafia, The Westies’ legendary brutality and cunning have given them the leverage necessary to share the spoils through a fragile détente.—
Denise Petski,
Deadline,
9 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
And the next pretext might not be crime; it might be supposed voter fraud, a phenomenon that is statistically almost non-existent.—
Elizabeth Goitein,
Time,
27 Sep. 2025
-
But Giuliani accused the company again of contributing to voter fraud not long after on his radio show.—
Ross O'Keefe,
The Washington Examiner,
27 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
As many people have rightly remarked, the response to Kirk’s murder is emblematic of the current hypocrisy.—
Louis Menand,
New Yorker,
26 Sep. 2025
-
Luckily, Alex’s wife Laura has been secretly meeting with the townspeople since moving back to Tall Pines, slowly questions and making comments that reveal the hypocrisy and dangers of Evelyn’s tactics.—
Keith Langston,
PEOPLE,
26 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Dissimulate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissimulate. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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