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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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
Nick Suss, Nashville Tennessean, 3 Nov. 2025
Either Michigan is fooling everyone in college football, or the Wolverines are fooling themselves.
—Austin Meek, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2025
North Korea, fooling no one, is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
—John M. Crisp, Mercury News, 29 Oct. 2025
The fastball-splitter combo was working well for him again, while his 74 mph curveball was fooling hitters all night as well.
—Scott Thompson, FOXNews.com, 26 Oct. 2025
Only in 2024 did models begin outperforming humans, and by 2025, as previously mentioned, ChatGPT was fooling judges more than 70 percent of the time.
—Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 22 Oct. 2025
North Korea, fooling no one, is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
—John M. Crisp, Twin Cities, 22 Oct. 2025
From footage of rabbits jumping on trampolines to babies walking from birth, some videos are easy to spot while others are fooling audiences.
—Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Oct. 2025
As Rolling Stone has previously reported, bogus images of classic rockers in hospitals or singing at the graves of other rockers have flooded the internet — fooling some fans in the process and provoking laughs in just as many.
—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 21 Oct. 2025
Verb
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
Either Michigan is fooling everyone in college football, or the Wolverines are fooling themselves.
—Austin Meek, New York Times, 2 Nov. 2025
North Korea, fooling no one, is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
—John M. Crisp, Mercury News, 29 Oct. 2025
The fastball-splitter combo was working well for him again, while his 74 mph curveball was fooling hitters all night as well.
—Scott Thompson, FOXNews.com, 26 Oct. 2025
Only in 2024 did models begin outperforming humans, and by 2025, as previously mentioned, ChatGPT was fooling judges more than 70 percent of the time.
—Deni Ellis Béchard, Scientific American, 22 Oct. 2025
North Korea, fooling no one, is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
—John M. Crisp, Twin Cities, 22 Oct. 2025
From footage of rabbits jumping on trampolines to babies walking from birth, some videos are easy to spot while others are fooling audiences.
—Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 22 Oct. 2025
As Rolling Stone has previously reported, bogus images of classic rockers in hospitals or singing at the graves of other rockers have flooded the internet — fooling some fans in the process and provoking laughs in just as many.
—David Browne, Rolling Stone, 21 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fooling
Noun
-
Don’t get too comfortable because the toxicity, lies and deception are about to return.—
Carly Thomas,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Nov. 2025
-
The 5-foot-11, 154-pound Imai throws a mix of six pitches, but is more than simply a deception specialist.—
Jon Vankin,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Growing tulips indoors in pots uses a technique called forcing—tricking the bulb and plant into blooming.—
Andy Wilcox,
Better Homes & Gardens,
29 Oct. 2025
-
How to protect yourself from AI phishing scams AI phishing scams rely on tricking people into trusting what looks and sounds real.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
14 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Or, joking around with cruise staff, fans as well as his fellow industry mates.—
Essence,
Essence,
4 Nov. 2025
-
Others welcomed the move, while some suggested that Abbott was joking.—
Khaleda Rahman,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The New York Colored American reported that some offers of short-term work for Black men — moving livestock to or from Kentucky, for example — were ruses that ended with kidnappings.—
Equal Justice Initiative,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Odysseus, the Ithacan warrior who is as celebrated for craftiness as Achilles is for brute strength, devises a clever ruse in which the Greeks place a giant wooden horse outside Troy’s walls and pretend to sail away.—
Elizabeth D. Samet,
Foreign Affairs,
29 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
As Venus enters Scorpio, your love life appears quiet, but appearances can be deceiving!—
USA TODAY,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Gordon warned me that this was deceiving.—
Ava Kofman,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
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
-
Watching the song’s polarizing music video, which uses digital trickery to reunite the surviving Beatles with their late mates, projected behind McCartney and his band on a massive screen is trippy, and hard for the brain to comprehend.—
Joseph Hudak,
Rolling Stone,
7 Nov. 2025
-
But there’s no trickery in those matches — the big ones are pay-per-view promoted events.—
Jeremy Herb,
CNN Money,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The story then unfolded through the subterfuge of the princess and the care of Morton.—
Simon Perry,
PEOPLE,
28 Oct. 2025
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Unlike the confrontational drudgery of couples therapy — and aiming to avoid the confrontational finality of divorce — this approach relies on subterfuge.—
Sheri Linden,
HollywoodReporter,
23 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fooling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fooling. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.
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