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
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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
as in deception
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of fooling
Beren Cross, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2025
Each plays a role in fooling their foe, who captures the turtle, while the deer, heeding the turtle’s good counsel, manages a sly escape.
—John Nemec, The Conversation, 7 Apr. 2025
Myatt has already served time for his fooling art auction houses and others into buying his copies of others’ art, and got out of jail for doing just that in 1999.
—The Editors Of Artnews, ARTnews.com, 1 Apr. 2025
The Naperville City Council election is April 1 (not fooling).
—Naperville Sun, Chicago Tribune, 18 Mar. 2025
Chunky and at times fooling no one with its meandering character logic, there’s a reason most of the awards this film went to Hopkins.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 17 Mar. 2025
Though the Huskies turned it around in the second half and got close, nobody was fooling anybody.
—Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 15 Mar. 2025
Those on the right who make excuses for Tate aren’t just fooling themselves.
—Liam Siegler, National Review, 12 Mar. 2025
Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves.
—Efrat Lachter, Fox News, 25 Feb. 2025
Noun
James cuts back inside onto his right foot, fooling the defender, rather than going to the byline off his left foot.
—Beren Cross, New York Times, 8 Apr. 2025
Each plays a role in fooling their foe, who captures the turtle, while the deer, heeding the turtle’s good counsel, manages a sly escape.
—John Nemec, The Conversation, 7 Apr. 2025
Myatt has already served time for his fooling art auction houses and others into buying his copies of others’ art, and got out of jail for doing just that in 1999.
—The Editors Of Artnews, ARTnews.com, 1 Apr. 2025
The Naperville City Council election is April 1 (not fooling).
—Naperville Sun, Chicago Tribune, 18 Mar. 2025
Chunky and at times fooling no one with its meandering character logic, there’s a reason most of the awards this film went to Hopkins.
—Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 17 Mar. 2025
Though the Huskies turned it around in the second half and got close, nobody was fooling anybody.
—Dom Amore, Hartford Courant, 15 Mar. 2025
Those on the right who make excuses for Tate aren’t just fooling themselves.
—Liam Siegler, National Review, 12 Mar. 2025
Anyone who says otherwise is fooling themselves.
—Efrat Lachter, Fox News, 25 Feb. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fooling
Verb
-
For myself and many of my classmates, the four-story Forever 21 in Times Square was the most exciting part of our senior-class trip to New York City—not joking!—
Kaitlyn Tiffany,
The Atlantic,
18 Mar. 2025
-
And, everyone was joking about it behind his back.—
Todd Nordstrom,
Forbes,
14 Mar. 2025
Noun
-
This stylization gives her a veneer of being disarmingly kind; but ultimately, is a form of deception that caused Sophie to fatally trust this person.—
Tiffany Leigh,
Forbes.com,
25 June 2025
-
Codenamed Operation Midnight Hammer, the overnight mission relied on deception, aerial refueling, and near-total radio silence to hit Iran's Fordo and Natanz enrichment facilities—sites that had withstood weeks of sustained Israeli attacks.—
Jesus Mesa,
MSNBC Newsweek,
23 June 2025
Verb
-
The show, hosted by actor Alan Cumming and set in a remote Scottish castle, features reality TV veterans and celebrities working together—and often deceiving each other—in challenges for a cash prize.—
Raja Krishnamoorthi,
MSNBC Newsweek,
9 Apr. 2025
-
Augusta National will quickly expose even the most microscopic weakness in one’s game with its winding fairways and deceiving putting surfaces.—
Gabby Herzig,
New York Times,
8 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Barriers lifted in advance, Mellor and his French Resistance passengers hurtled through at 80mph leaving guards little chance of spotting the night-time ruse.—
Iain Macauley,
Forbes.com,
5 June 2025
-
The ruse, Smith suggested in her memoir, was employed successfully on at least one occasion.—
Laurie Gwen Shapiro,
New Yorker,
2 June 2025
Noun
-
That trickery only works when the players understand the layers of the system on a detailed level.—
Sam McDowell,
Kansas City Star,
21 June 2025
-
This trickery is a cost-saving measure in that the orchid does not have to manufacture nectar or prodigious amounts of expensive pollen.—
The San Diego Union Tribune,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
14 June 2025
Noun
-
The facility had been subject to sabotage and subterfuge by Israel for many years even before these attacks–including a computer virus that wrecked the centrifuges over a decade ago.—
Geoff Brumfiel,
NPR,
26 June 2025
-
When the magazine writer Dylan (Daryl Wein) and his girlfriend and photographer, Lucy (Abigail Cowen), descend upon the rocker Milo (Jack Farthing), there’s subterfuge afoot.—
Lisa Kennedy,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
Noun
-
The character Satine in the musical is less of a victim of the manager’s demands and chooses to use her feminine wiles to make money for the club, which is her artistic home.—
Pam Kragen,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
22 June 2025
-
Unlike the bodega bag or admission to the Metropolitan Museum, parking, with enough wiles and time, can still be had for free.—
Zach Helfand,
New Yorker,
5 May 2025
Noun
-
For people like Soriano, however, the elections are about more than political stratagem and determining which family holds the most nominal power.—
Chad de Guzman,
Time,
13 May 2025
-
The scene is straight out of a stratagem by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Bertolucci’s mentor), but Palud takes it literally without applying comparable ideological critique to the rest of her film.—
Armond White,
National Review,
28 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fooling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fooling. Accessed 10 Jul. 2025.
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