insidiousness

noun

as in underhandedness

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of insidiousness Thankfully, Leviticus has a good grasp on how to leverage this conceit for scares and to score points about the insidiousness of mistaking hatred for salvation. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 17 June 2026 Without ever using the words, this House of the Dragon season evokes all-too-real fears about police funding, abridgment of freedom of speech and the insidiousness of theocratic rule. — Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 15 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for insidiousness
  1. underhandedness
  2. hypocrisy
  3. slyness
  4. perfidy
  5. duplicity
  6. trickery
  7. deception
  8. slipperiness
Noun
  • Frustrated but persistent, about seven hundred of the twelve hundred agents that participated in the board collaborated in what was essentially a cybersecurity version of capture the flag, a war game in which underhandedness is rewarded.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of underhandedness
Noun
  • Even the modern reestablishment of Israel is telling of the hypocrisy of the Arab world.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 23 Oct. 2026
  • Alexander Skarsgård and Olivia Colman play bizarro newlyweds in a naughty parable about lust, jealousy and moral hypocrisy.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2026
Definition of hypocrisy
Noun
  • The harp is not an instrument of slyness, wryness, or the earth.
    — Emma Madden, Pitchfork, 28 Apr. 2026
  • Like the tricksters of myth, there’s depth to their slyness.
    — Big Think, Big Think, 5 Feb. 2026
Definition of slyness
Noun
  • Platner, indeed, has boiled down nearly all political problems to the perfidy of sinister oligarchs.
    — Jonathan Chait, The Atlantic, 6 July 2026
  • If the landing had been faked, the Soviets would have figured it out and would have loved to reveal to the world America’s perfidy.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 May 2026
Definition of perfidy
Noun
  • That these sort of games, with their duplicity, hypocrisies and teary moments of tenderness, are popular is beyond question, and that is certainly how viewers are invited to watch.
    — Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 23 Sep. 2026
  • David Sacks, former tech investor and White House AI and crypto czar, has an excellent counterpoint that could explain the apparent duplicity of Dario's manifesto.
    — Jim Cramer, CNBC, 13 Sep. 2026
Definition of duplicity
Noun
  • Perhaps that’s why the studio’s new reliance upon computer trickery — courtesy of a collaboration with Wētā FX — feels more like more of a symptom of Prue’s crisis than part of the solution to it.
    — David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 11 Oct. 2026
  • Thursday is The New York Times’s favorite day of the week to publish crosswords with twists, surprises or extra layers of trickery to puzzle over.
    — Sean McGowan, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of trickery
Noun
  • Nefarious actors have long been keen to fill the gap through what international law describes as coercion, deception and abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability.
    — Robert P. George, Washington Post, 14 Oct. 2026
  • The suspect, identified as 58-year-old Zishan Zeng, was charged with two counts of elder exploitation and two counts of theft by deception.
    — Dan Raby, CBS News, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of deception
Noun
  • In 1990, Cole meets Jeffrey Goines, a fellow mental institution patient played with bug-eyed slipperiness by Brad Pitt, whose performance nabbed him his first Oscar nod.
    — Sara Netzley, Entertainment Weekly, 11 Sep. 2026
  • That factual slipperiness might matter less if the psychology connected more deeply.
    — Alison Foreman, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2026
Definition of slipperiness

Browse Nearby Words

insidiously
insidiousness
insight
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Cite this Entry

“Insidiousness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/insidiousness. Accessed 25 Oct. 2026.

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