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
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in deception
Related Words
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
Synonyms & Similar Words
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
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Recent Examples of fooling
Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2026
Watching Bedard break ankles on a nightly basis like Allen Iverson on skates, attempting one-man rushes most players couldn’t even fathom, fooling elite goaltenders with his patented drag-and-drive release, is exhilarating.
—Mark Lazerus, New York Times, 3 Feb. 2026
Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Jan. 2026
The big question is whether Rodriguez is fooling Trump.
—Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, 22 Jan. 2026
Dallas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center has been fooling birds for years, reflecting the sky and delivering a hard stop.
—Dallas Morning News, 9 Jan. 2026
Early reports indicate that kids are fooling the age-recognition software with sophisticated techniques such as drawing on facial hair and substituting celebrity photos for their own.
—Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2025
Anyone who thinks that this is an issue that could have been solved by nominating a couple more Spider-Man movies is fooling themselves.
—Nate Jones, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2025
Anyone who predicted this Titans team to win more than four or five games was fooling themselves, and even those predictions are coming off over-optimistic.
—Nick Suss, Nashville Tennessean, 3 Nov. 2025
Verb
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
Watching Bedard break ankles on a nightly basis like Allen Iverson on skates, attempting one-man rushes most players couldn’t even fathom, fooling elite goaltenders with his patented drag-and-drive release, is exhilarating.
—Mark Lazerus, New York Times, 3 Feb. 2026
Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 28 Jan. 2026
The big question is whether Rodriguez is fooling Trump.
—Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald, 22 Jan. 2026
Dallas’ Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center has been fooling birds for years, reflecting the sky and delivering a hard stop.
—Dallas Morning News, 9 Jan. 2026
Early reports indicate that kids are fooling the age-recognition software with sophisticated techniques such as drawing on facial hair and substituting celebrity photos for their own.
—Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2025
Anyone who thinks that this is an issue that could have been solved by nominating a couple more Spider-Man movies is fooling themselves.
—Nate Jones, Vulture, 19 Dec. 2025
Anyone who predicted this Titans team to win more than four or five games was fooling themselves, and even those predictions are coming off over-optimistic.
—Nick Suss, Nashville Tennessean, 3 Nov. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fooling
Noun
-
Comte’s feature directorial debut follows Quebec teenager Antoine, who travels to Ghana for a showdown with Kojo, a local gang member, amid an escalating game of deception.—
Etan Vlessing,
HollywoodReporter,
16 Feb. 2026
-
The Portage case is different, as the subcontractor and his co-conspirators are accused of deception in their failure to deliver the televisions to warehouses.—
Jim Woods,
Chicago Tribune,
15 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Prompt injection is a method of tricking LLMs into doing things they are normally prevented from doing.—
Bruce Schneier,
IEEE Spectrum,
21 Jan. 2026
-
While cold can damage plants, weather that’s too warm too soon can also have a negative effect on bulbs by tricking them into sprouting early.—
Andrea Beck,
Better Homes & Gardens,
9 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Obama dismissed those rumors, joking that if aliens existed and were being concealed, even the president was not in on it.—
Adisa Hargett-Robinson,
The Washington Examiner,
15 Feb. 2026
-
The night had begun with Evangelos Marinakis laughing and joking on the touchline with injured defender Murillo.—
Paul Taylor,
New York Times,
12 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Because telling Starfleet that the Furies are part Lynar, and particularly susceptible to high sonic frequencies, is just an ingenious ruse.—
Richard Edwards,
Space.com,
13 Feb. 2026
-
Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders said at trial that the custody exchange on the day of the shooting was a ruse for Payne to talk his way back into Lane's life.—
Quinlan Bentley,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
10 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Neglecting The Kitchen Sink Your sink may look spick-and-span, but looks can be deceiving.—
Melissa Locker,
Southern Living,
16 Feb. 2026
-
But a superficial comparison between Delta, United, and American across certain headline metrics can be deceiving.—
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld,
Fortune,
16 Feb. 2026
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
Noun
-
Just like the ClickFix attacks, this malicious trickery is all about running commands that almost all users would never think to do in normal circumstances.—
Zak Doffman,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
-
While there’s a little studio trickery, like a drum part taped at a slower tempo but sped up to the BPM in the recording, the rest was due to a perspective shift.—
Nina Corcoran,
Pitchfork,
29 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Both nations are among the tournament's top contenders, which made the last few practices stateside simmering with subterfuge.—
Ren Clayton,
CBS News,
10 Feb. 2026
-
The anti-ICE movement seems to be more of a subterfuge by those who oppose immigration restrictions in general.—
Reader Commentary,
Baltimore Sun,
6 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fooling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fooling. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.
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