fooling 1 of 3

adjective

as in joking
marked by or expressive of mild or good-natured teasing ribbed him with fooling comments about how much his hair had grayed

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fooling

2 of 3

noun

as in deception

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fooling

3 of 3

verb

present participle of fool
1
as in tricking
to cause to believe what is untrue I fooled him into thinking that we were driving to the store, not to his surprise birthday party

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in kidding
to make jokes an edgy comedian fooling with an appreciative college audience

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fooling
Noun
No fooling, April brings some pretty interesting surprises on Netflix. — K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 27 Mar. 2026
Verb
Throughout all the commotion, Romelu Lukaku acted as decoy, holding on to the ball, fooling everyone, including the TV producer, who pulled up a graphic showing his recent penalty record. — Geir Jordet, New York Times, 15 July 2026 Speaking on Harvard Business School’s The Founder Mindset podcast, hosted by senior lecturer and serial entrepreneur Reza Satchu, the Shark Tank investor argued that anyone trying to balance a young company against the rest of their life is fooling themselves. — Sydney Lake, Fortune, 17 June 2026 The other is fooling humans, particularly the dwindling number of journalists, critics, and other gatekeepers who are still capable of conferring legitimacy by paying attention. — Lane Brown, Vulture, 15 May 2026 After killing Minnesota’s first power play, the Avalanche opened the scoring when defenseman Sam Malinski scored his first career playoff goal, fooling Wallstedt with a rising wrist shot. — Jess Myers, Twin Cities, 4 May 2026 But anyone in the auto industry who didn’t feel like something was going to happen in China five years ago was fooling themselves. — Jamie Lincoln Kitman, Rolling Stone, 24 Apr. 2026 Politicians are fooling themselves about the political power of health-conscious moms. — Nicholas Florko, The Atlantic, 22 Apr. 2026 But Baio says Kassotis has been fooling people for years. — Erin Moriarty, CBS News, 8 Mar. 2026 Indeed, depth would only get in the way of the plot, which is primarily concerned with fooling you and fooling you again. — Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fooling
  1. mocking
  2. deception
  3. tricking
  4. joking
  5. ruse
  6. deceiving
  7. trickery
  8. subterfuge
Adjective
  • To get a sense of his whole deal, look no further than the half-mocking, half-earnest title of his latest album, Country!
    — Jonathan Bernstein, Rolling Stone, 23 Sep. 2025
Definition of mocking
Noun
  • Her backstory is littered with half-truths and deceptions, including a lie that her mentally disabled younger sister was murdered after being kidnapped.
    — Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 11 Aug. 2026
  • In modern times, as threats have evolved, deception with moving the president has been an integral part of the Secret Service protective methodologies.
    — Donald J. Mihalek, ABC News, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of deception
Verb
  • Mistruths, false claims, scams, and other deceptive efforts are tricking people into thinking that a watermark removal app will do wonders, whereas the reality is that the results are at best half-mixed or aimed to cause damage.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 16 Aug. 2026
  • ClickFix works by tricking you into performing an action on your computer that stealthily downloads and installs malware.
    — Alan Henry, PC Magazine, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of tricking
Verb
  • Though some eagle fans had good fun with her name and joking that Shadow was cheating on Jackie, Jolene is considered a bit too young to be thinking about mating.
    — Amanda Lee Myers, USA Today, 14 Aug. 2026
  • They were dressed as food-delivery workers, carrying insulated bags on their backs, joking with one another and livestreaming everything with their phones.
    — Will Gottsegen, The Atlantic, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of joking
Noun
  • Once Wanda’s ruse is uncovered, the real Vision (now sporting a white costume) is reanimated and has his full memory restored.
    — Jordan Moreau, Variety, 15 Aug. 2026
  • His misdirection was part of an elaborate ruse to mask his transfer from Air Force One to a military fighter jet following intel that Iran may be targeting the president’s plane.
    — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 2026
Definition of ruse
Verb
  • Paul has long accused Fauci of deceiving Americans about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
    — Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 29 July 2026
  • The ensuing investigation ultimately revealed that Angela had framed Hadley and uncovered evidence of her long history of deceiving people to gain sympathy.
    — Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 23 July 2026
Definition of deceiving
Noun
  • Football is all about engaño (trickery) — looking one way and passing the other, feinting to go left and swiftly moving right, manipulating the opposition and tricking them to open up those little spaces.
    — Xavi, New York Times, 19 July 2026
  • Marc Cucurella and Pedro Porro have stretched defenses from the flanks, while Lamine Yamal has confused them with his trickery.
    — Jibin Joseph, PC Magazine, 18 July 2026
Definition of trickery
Noun
  • The subterfuge involved him stowing away in an airport catering container to sneak onto the jet.
    — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 13 Aug. 2026
  • The sophistication of model subterfuge that OpenAI has now disclosed, combined with OpenAI’s inability to detect or stop the hacking, suggests far worse could be to come.
    — Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 12 Aug. 2026
Definition of subterfuge

Browse Nearby Words

foolhardy
fooling
fooling around
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Cite this Entry

“Fooling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fooling. Accessed 18 Aug. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on fooling

Nglish: Translation of fooling for Spanish Speakers

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