as in underhandedness
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for insidiousness
Noun
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Stoic, steady under pressure, and with an unflinching gaze that does most of the talking for him, Chris has no patience for hypocrisy or cruelty and holds fast to a quiet moral code rooted in fairness and restraint.—
Nellie Andreeva,
Deadline,
25 Feb. 2026 -
Hatred, prejudice, and hypocrisy.—
Marc Jacobs,
Vanity Fair,
24 Feb. 2026
Noun
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Like the tricksters of myth, there’s depth to their slyness.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
5 Feb. 2026
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Ay, the superb slyness of that last response!—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
8 Sep. 2025
Noun
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But the mayor’s dramatic tale of his predecessor’s fiscal fiddling was designed with a clear political agenda in mind: both to underline the magnitude of the problem and to identify the villains responsible for this perfidy.—
Washington Post,
Washington Post,
29 Jan. 2026
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More recently, an al Qaeda operative and suspected mastermind behind the 2000 USS Cole bombing — in which suicide bombers sidled up alongside a US warship, waved to the sailors and then detonated explosives — was charged with perfidy, among other crimes.—
Harmeet Kaur,
CNN Money,
21 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Premiering in 2004, Project Runway was instrumental in ushering in a new style of reality competition based on skill rather than duplicity and cynicism.—
Kevin Jacobsen,
Entertainment Weekly,
16 Feb. 2026
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Despite his layered duplicity, Jonathan understands and defines himself by courting risk.—
Emily Zemler,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski find an enchanting balance between storybook allure and adult trickery.—
Robert Abele,
Los Angeles Times,
20 Feb. 2026
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Rayan gave Mykolenko a torrid time, beating him with trickery, pace and brute force.—
Patrick Boyland,
New York Times,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The Stolen Girl series follows a mother whose young daughter goes missing after a sleepover, unfolding into a story of deception, family secrets, and betrayal.—
Jesse Whittock,
Deadline,
24 Feb. 2026
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That endorsement comes from someone who has watched every moment of every season’s deception and strategy unfold.—
Hanna Wickes,
Kansas City Star,
23 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The crunchy Larkin Poe album embodies the musical slipperiness of Americana as an ideal, a carefree cruise through country, blues, rock, and soul; the Molly Tuttle album brims with the rustic zest of early Sheryl Crow.—
Craig Jenkins,
Vulture,
30 Jan. 2026
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Still, her slipperiness was something that attracted the actor.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
26 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Shinomiya’s sensibility — steeped in painterly craft and handmade ideosycracy, resistant to digital smoothness — lends the film a tactile quality that mirrors its thematic preoccupation with craftsmanship, ritual and reverence for the old ways.—
Patrick Brzeski,
HollywoodReporter,
19 Feb. 2026
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Remember that smoothness is not insight and eloquence is not evidence of understanding.—
Walter Quattrociocchi,
Scientific American,
18 Feb. 2026
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“Insidiousness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/insidiousness. Accessed 27 Feb. 2026.
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