How to Use deceptive in a Sentence

deceptive

adjective
  • The criminal trial in Chicago is the third in two years to focus on a style of deceptive trading known as spoofing.
    Dave Michaels, WSJ, 8 July 2022
  • An excellent four-directional skater who makes deceptive lateral cuts.
    Kyle Woodlief, USA TODAY, 7 July 2022
  • More data also means more potential for deceptive advertising.
    Eric Reicin, Forbes, 15 July 2022
  • Instead, its originality is found in its very simplicity—its deceptive modesty.
    Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 11 July 2022
  • Some donors' family members who received refunds said that Taylor Robson was using deceptive fundraising tactics.
    Stacey Barchenger, The Arizona Republic, 12 July 2022
  • In all the best ways, there isn’t much about Mike Hilton that isn’t deceptive.
    Andrew Gillis, cleveland, 29 Jan. 2023
  • The pickpockets are called the Four Guns, a name as deceptive as their tactics.
    Tanya Melendez, EW.com, 13 Mar. 2023
  • The best example of this deceptive simplicity is the star of the dessert menu—the kouign-amann ice cream.
    Anna Mazurek, Chron, 22 July 2022
  • Since, again, they’re not shown until late in the purchasing process, the fees feel even more deceptive.
    Matt Wake | Mwake@al.com, al, 15 June 2023
  • The group alleges Boeing led Ten Oaks down a deceptive path in a last-ditch effort to buy time and keep low prices.
    Julia Coin, Charlotte Observer, 14 Feb. 2024
  • The twelfth house’s realm can be both receptive AND deceptive.
    ELLE, 30 Nov. 2022
  • The ads are so deceptive that at least one Alaskan radio station refused to air them.
    Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 6 Oct. 2022
  • Car dealers, Dwyer said, would not be able to lie or be deceptive about cost and financing terms.
    Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 4 July 2024
  • Then again, the whole movie is designed as a (deceptive) downward spiral.
    Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 16 May 2024
  • True to crypto’s form, even that ad was somewhat deceptive.
    Scott Nover, Quartz, 13 Feb. 2023
  • The idea was to trap once, then retreat into their base man-to-man against the Princeton offense’s deceptive array of back cuts, post rubs and slipped screens.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 22 Jan. 2023
  • In both cases, the FTC relied on a law against unfair or deceptive practices.
    Geoff Mulvihill The Associated Press, arkansasonline.com, 18 Feb. 2024
  • The shape and the four-color design do look basic, but the simplicity is deceptive.
    WIRED, 22 Mar. 2023
  • While Biden’s approval has been mired in the low 40s, his job ratings turned out to be a deceptive election barometer.
    Craig Gilbert, Journal Sentinel, 21 Nov. 2022
  • And so along with the European image of the shape-shifting and deceptive Jew came the companion image of the Jew as farseeing and noble sage.
    Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023
  • His size and deceptive speed have Altenberg dreaming of ways to take advantage of his strengths this season.
    Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 9 Aug. 2022
  • Consumer advocates have long railed against the deceptive practice of tacking on the hidden resort fees at the last-minute.
    Jessica Puckett, Condé Nast Traveler, 18 Oct. 2023
  • But that's deceptive, because gasoline prices dropped 10.6 percent; other prices went up across the board.
    The Week Staff, The Week, 25 Sep. 2022
  • Marten says that the center believes that many other CPCs go too far with deceptive marketing and ads.
    Molly Longman, refinery29.com, 12 Sep. 2022
  • Authorities said the area is known for its deceptive terrain, but that there is a lack of respect for nature.
    Louis Casiano, Fox News, 28 May 2024
  • The state hopes to compel ExxonMobil to end its deceptive practices, and to secure an abatement fund and civil penalties for the harm.
    Janie Har, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Sep. 2024
  • The truth is, these types of deceptive emails aren't really coming from those addresses.
    Kurt Knutsson, Fox News, 12 Sep. 2023
  • The Supreme Court ruling is one of the strictest in a recent spate of measures addressing deceptive condom use, as courts try to define consent.
    New York Times, 29 July 2022
  • For years, Twitter encouraged among Democrats a distorted idea of what the political consensus in their party looked like, creating the deceptive sense that radical ideas like police abolition were in fact conventional wisdom.
    Michelle Goldberg, The Mercury News, 26 Sep. 2024
  • Another helpful tool is the disaster fraud timeline, which outlines the deceptive practices a person can anticipate following a disaster.
    Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 5 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'deceptive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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