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
K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 27 Mar. 2026
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
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
Noun
No fooling, April brings some pretty interesting surprises on Netflix.
—K. Thor Jensen, PC Magazine, 27 Mar. 2026
Verb
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
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fooling
Noun
-
To Elliott, these seemingly minuscule mistakes that were ultimately corrected encapsulate Neon’s deception.—
Winston Cho,
HollywoodReporter,
21 Apr. 2026
-
Test your hand-eye coördination and deception skills by maneuvering open windows on your desktop background, answering e-mails and texts and looking at Instagram, all while appearing to be engaged.—
Charles Yu,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
After tricking her way into her dream job, Liza discovers that disguising herself as a millennial and keeping her two lives separate is a job in and of itself.—
Andrew Walsh,
Entertainment Weekly,
5 Apr. 2026
-
Recall his central role in tricking immigrants in Texas to fly to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts with empty promises of jobs.—
Howard L. Simon,
The Orlando Sentinel,
5 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Liam keeps joking about it on Twitter.—
Andy Greene,
Rolling Stone,
21 Apr. 2026
-
This is a serious fridge for people who aren’t joking about their wine collections.—
Emily Saladino,
Bon Appetit Magazine,
17 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
In order to ensure the ruse is never uncovered, the twins swap places regularly, sharing equal parts — both good and bad — of each other's everyday lives.—
Matt Cabral,
Entertainment Weekly,
13 Apr. 2026
-
Carreyrou acknowledged an obvious objection to this thesis—that there is a lengthy paper trail of Back corresponding with Satoshi—but explains it away by saying that Back was actually writing to himself as part of an elaborate ruse to throw would-be unmaskers off the trail.—
Jeff John Roberts,
Fortune,
8 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Swalwell apparently did an excellent job deceiving those around him, including some congressional and campaign staffers who’d known him for years and worked closely with the seven-term lawmaker, day in, day out.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Apr. 2026
-
The Mets have a responsibility to protect their players by not throwing them under the bus, but there are ways to do that without trying to convince people that their eyes are deceiving them.—
Abbey Mastracco,
New York Daily News,
16 Apr. 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
-
Now, there is a little bit of trickery being employed here.—
Alan Bradley,
Space.com,
16 Apr. 2026
-
The sets and cinematic trickery of the scenes between regular-size humans and their 6-in.—
Rebecca Aizin,
PEOPLE,
10 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
In the Television Academy's Miami Vice oral history, Johnson revealed the show’s cutting-edge content was made possible by simple subterfuge.—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
13 Apr. 2026
-
The trio went to great lengths to perpetrate the subterfuge, the indictment claims, including using hair dryers to remove packaging labels that were then reaffixed to thousands of fake replica servers.—
Amanda Gerut,
Fortune,
7 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fooling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fooling. Accessed 25 Apr. 2026.
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