Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.
| abusion | (Spenser) misuse, deception. |
| assot | (Obs.) to befool, besot. |
| bam | to hoax or cheat. |
| bamboozle | to deceive by underhanded methods; to frustrate. |
| bamboozlement | the act of bamboozling. |
| bamboozler | one who bamboozles, deceives by underhanded methods. |
| beflum | (Scott) to befool, cajole. |
| befool | to fool; to delude or lead into error. |
| beguile | to deceive. |
| beguilement | the state of being beguiled. |
| beguiler | one who beguiles. |
| beguilingly | (Adv.) BEGUILING. |
| begunk | (Scots) to trick, to play a trick on. |
| belie | to misrepresent. |
| belier | one who belies. |
| bilk | to avoid paying someone what is due. |
| bilker | one who bilks, eludes payment of what is due. |
| bishop | a senior clergyman in charge of a diocese; (verb) to fill, or otherwise tamper with, the teeth of a horse, to make it seem younger. |
| bluff | open, frank (noun) a pretence, a trick; (verb) to deceive |
| bluffable | able to be bluffed. |
| bluffer | one that bluffs. |
| bluffness | the state of being bluff, open, frank. |
| bogus | not genuine, counterfeit. |
| bogusly | (Adv.) BOGUS, not genuine, counterfeit. |
| bogusness | the state of being bogus. |
| braide | (Shakesp.) dissembling, deceitful. |
| brummagem | making an imposing display but inferior and of little worth; (noun) something showy but cheap. |
| bumbaze | (Scots) to perplex, bamboozle. |
| bunce | (Sl.) profit or gain; (verb) to ring up wrongfully an extra item on every customer's bill, to offset theft. |
| bunco | (US sl.) a confidence trick; (verb) to practice such a trick. |
| bunko | (US sl.) a confidence trick; (verb) to practice a confidence trick. |
| canard | (Fr.) a false or unfounded report or story. |
| cardsharp | one who engages in sharp practice at cards. |
| cardsharper | one who engages in sharp practice at cards. |
| catchpenny | a worthless thing made only for profit. |
| cauker | a big lie. |
| caulker | a big lie. |
| cheat | one who deceives or defrauds; (verb) to defraud. |
| cheater | one that cheats. |
| cheatery | (Coll.) cheating. |
| cheatingly | (Adv.) CHEATING. |
| chiaus | a cheat, a swindler; (verb) to cheat. |
| chicane | a series of sharp bends on a motor-racing track; (verb, arch.) to quibble, to use tricks and artifices. |
| chicaner | a person who chicanes, a quibbler. |
| chicanery | deception by trickery or sophistry. |
| chiseler | one who chisels; a swindler. |
| chiseller | one who chisels; a swindler. |
| chiz | (Sl.) a cheat, a swizz; (verb) to swindle. |
| chizz | (Sl.) a cheat, a swizz; (verb) to swindle. |
| chouse | a cheat, a swindler; (verb) to cheat; to swindle. |
| chouser | a swindler. |
| choush | a cheat, a swindler. |
| chowse | to cheat; to swindle. |
| cod | a kind of food fish; (verb) to hoax or make fun of. |
| codology | the art or practice of bluffing or deception. |
| cog | a projection, eg on a toothed wheel; (verb) to furnish with cogs; to cheat at dice. |
| cogger | a flatterer or deceiver. |
| colt | a young male horse; (verb, arch.) to frisk like a colt, to defraud. |
| coosen | (Obs.) to cheat. |
| coosin | (Obs.) to cheat. |
| counterbluff | actions or words intended as a bluff, made in opposition to someone else's bluff. |
| counterfect | (Spenser) counterfeit, made in imitation. |
| counterfeisance | an act of counterfeiting; forgery. |
| counterfeit | imitation (verb) to imitate or feign esp with intent to deceive |
| counterfeitly | (Adv.) COUNTERFEIT, imitation. |
| counterfesaunce | (Arch.) an act of counterfeiting; forgery. |
| covinous | (Arch.) fraudulent. |
| cozenage | the art or practice of cozening. |
| cozener | one who cozens. |
| credulous | gullible. |
| credulously | (Adv.) CREDULOUS, gullible. |
| cretism | a lie. |
| cully | a pal, a mate; (verb, arch.) to cheat, deceive. |
| daubery | a crudely artful device, a pretence. |
| daubry | a crudely artful device, a pretence. |
| dawbry | (Shakesp.) a crudely artful device, a pretence. |
| deceit | the act of deceiving. |
| deceitful | given to deceiving. |
| deceitfully | (Adv.) DECEITFUL, given to deceit. |
| deceitfulness | the state of being deceitful. |
| deceivability | the quality of being deceivable. |
| deceivable | fitted to deceive; deceitful. |
| deceivableness | the state of being deceivable. |
| deceivably | (Adv.) DECEIVABLE, fitted to deceive; deceitful. |
| deceive | to mislead by falsehood. |
| deceiver | one that deceives. |
| deceivingly | (Adv.) DECEIVING. |
| deceptibility | the quality of being deceptible. |
| deceptible | capable of being deceived; deceivable. |
| deception | the act of deceiving. |
| deceptional | of the nature of deception. |
| deceptious | (Shakesp.) deceitful. |
| deceptive | tending to deceive. |
| deceptively | (Adv.) DECEPTIVE, given to deceiving. |
| deceptiveness | the state of being deceptive. |
| deceptory | tending to deceive. |
| decoy | to lure into a trap. |
| decoyer | one who decoys. |
| defraud | to swindle. |
| defrauder | one who defrauds. |
| defraudment | the act of defrauding. |
| deludable | capable of being deluded. |
| delude | to mislead the mind or judgment of. |
| deluder | one who deludes. |
| deludingly | (Adv.) DELUDING. |
| delusion | the act of deluding. |
| delusional | relating to delusion. |
| delusionary | relating to delusion. |
| delusive | tending to delude. |
| delusively | (Adv.) DELUSIVE, tending to delude. |
| delusiveness | the state of being delusive. |
| delusory | tending to delude. |
| diddler | a cheat. |
| dissemblance | the act of dissembling. |
| dissimulate | to pretend, feign. |
| dodgery | evasion, trickery. |
| duckshover | (Aust.) one who duckshoves, jumps a queue; cheats. |
| dumminess | being like a dummy, sham. |
| dummy | sham, feigned (noun) a sham or counterfeit article taking the place of a real one; (verb) to fake |
| dupability | the ability to be duped. |
| dupable | capable of being duped. |
| dupe | someone who is cheated; (verb) to deceive. |
| duper | one who dupes another. |
| dupery | the act or practice of duping. |
| duplicitous | given to or marked by deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech. |
| duplicitously | (Adv.) DUPLICITOUS, given to or marked by deliberate deceptiveness in behavior or speech. |
| duplicity | doubleness, esp in conduct or intention. |
| elusion | the action of eluding. |
| elusory | tending to elude or deceive. |
| equivocal | subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuse. |
| equivocally | (Adv.) EQUIVOCAL, subject to two or more interpretations and usually used to mislead or confuse. |
| equivocate | to use equivocal or doubtful words in order to mislead or to avoid answering a question |
| equivocatingly | (Adv.) EQUIVOCATING. |
| equivocation | the use of equivocal or doubtful words. |
| factitious | contrived, artificial. |
| factitiousness | the state of being factitious. |
| faine | (Spenser) to feign. |
| fake | not genuine > FAKER, FAKEST; (verb) to contrive and present as genuine |
| fakement | a sham, a dodge. |
| faker | one who fakes eg works of art. |
| fakery | the practice of making fakes. |
| fakey | fake (noun) a skateboarding position in which the skateboarder faces the opposite direction to that which they would normally |
| false | wrong, deceiving (verb, obs.) to deceive |
| falsehood | a lie. |
| falsely | (Adv.) FALSE, wrong, deceiving. |
| falseness | the state of being false. |
| falser | (Obs.) a falsifier, a counterfeiter. |
| falsidical | conveying a meaning that is false. |
| falsifiable | that can be falsified. |
| falsification | the act of falsifying. |
| falsifier | one who falsifies. |
| falsify | to represent falsely. |
| falsish | somewhat false. |
| falsity | something false. |
| fastie | (Aust. sl.) a deceitful trick. |
| faux | (Fr.) fake, as in faux naif, falsely simple or naive, feigning artlessness. |
| fayne | (Spenser) to feign. |
| feign | to pretend, give a false impression. |
| feignedly | (Adv.) FEIGNED, in a manner to deceive. |
| feignedness | the state of being feigned. |
| feigner | one who feigns or pretends. |
| feigning | the act of feigning. |
| feigningly | (Adv.) FEIGNING. |
| fib | a small lie; (verb) to tell a small lie. |
| fibber | one that fibs. |
| fibbery | the habit of fibbing. |
| fibster | one who tells fibs. |
| fictive | feigned; counterfeit. |
| fictively | (Adv.) FICTIVE, feigned, counterfeit. |
| finagler | one who finagles, obtains by guile or swindling. |
| flam | to deceive. |
| flimflam | a confidence trick; (verb) to engage in confidence trickery. |
| flimflammer | one who engages in flimflam. |
| flimflammery | the act of engaging in flimflam. |
| fob | to put off. |
| foister | one who foists. |
| fop | an affected dandy; (verb) to deceive. |
| fubbery | (Obs.) a deception. |
| fudge | to falsify. |
| gammon | the cured meat from the hindquarters and leg of a pig; (verb) to feign an action; to perpetrate a hoax on. |
| gammoner | one who gammons, i.e. feigns or cheats. |
| geck | a dupe, an object of scorn; (verb) to mock, dupe. |
| gimcrack | cheap and showy; (noun) something cheap and showy, of little use. |
| gimcrackery | the state of being gimcrack. |
| gip | to swindle. |
| gipper | one who gips, a swindler. |
| grift | (US) to swindle. |
| grifter | (US) a swindler. |
| guile | cunning; (verb, obs.) to beguile. |
| guilefulness | the state of being guileful. |
| guiler | (Spenser) a deceiver. |
| gull | a dupe or fool; (verb) to dupe, deceive. |
| gullable | (Arch.) easily deceived. |
| gullably | (Adv.) GULLABLE, easily deceived. |
| guller | one who gulls, a deceiver. |
| gullery | (Arch.) deception. |
| gullibility | the state of being gullible. |
| gullible | easily deceived. |
| gullibly | (Adv.) GULLIBLE, easily deceived. |
| guyle | (Spenser) to beguile. |
| guyler | (Spenser) a deceiver. |
| gyp | pain, torture; (verb) to swindle. |
| hoax | a deceptive trick played as a practical joke; (verb) to deceive. |
| hoaxer | one that hoaxes. |
| hocus | to deceive or cheat. |
| hoodwink | to deceive. |
| hoodwinker | one who hoodwinks. |
| hornswoggle | to bamboozle, deceive. |
| humbug | pretence, fraud; (verb) to deceive, cheat. |
| humbuggable | capable of being humbugged. |
| humbugger | one who humbugs, deceives. |
| humbuggery | deception. |
| hypocrisy | a feigning to be better than one is, or to be what one is not. |
| hypocrite | one who pretends to be better or other than they are. |
| hypocritic | characterized by hypocrisy. |
| hypocritical | characterized by hypocrisy. |
| illude | to trick. |
| illusion | a false perception. |
| illusional | of or like an illusion. |
| illusioned | having an illusion. |
| illusorily | (Adv.) ILLUSORY, based on illusion. |
| illusory | based on illusion. |
| imposter | someone who assumes a false character or impersonates another. |
| impostor | someone who assumes a false character or impersonates another. |
| impostorous | relating to imposture. |
| impostrous | doing imposture. |
| imposture | a fraud, the act of an impostor. |
| imposturous | relating to imposture. |
| jackleg | an amateur; one characterized by unscrupulousness, dishonesty or lack or standards. |
| jadery | the tricks of a jade. |
| jimcrack | cheap and showy; (noun) something cheap and showy, of little use. |
| jookery | (Scots) trickery, roguery. |
| joukery | (Scots) trickery, roguery. |
| kid | a young goat; a child; (verb) to hoax or deceive. |
| kiddy | to hoax; to kid. |
| kidologist | a student of kidology. |
| kidology | the study of kidding. |
| lee | shelter; (verb, Scots) to tell a lie. |
| leear | (Scots) a liar. |
| leger | one who sells short weight in charcoal. |
| liar | one that speaks falsely. |
| lie | a false statement; (verb) to tell a lie to be in a horizontal position |
| lier | one who lies. |
| lyingly | (Adv.) LYING, untruthful. |
| malengine | (Spenser) evil machination, deceit. |
| malinger | (Fr.) to feign sickness in order to avoid duty or work. |
| malingerer | one who malingers. |
| malingery | the spirit or practices of a malingerer. |
| mamaguy | (Caribbean) to deceive or tease esp by flattery. |
| maskirovka | (Russian) use of deception or camouflage as military stratagem. |
| masquerade | an assembly of people wearing masks, costumes, esp at a ball; (verb) to disguise oneself. |
| mendaciousness | the quality of being mendacious, given to lying. |
| mendacity | given to lying, esp habitually. |
| misfeign | (Spenser) to feign with evil intent. |
| mislead | to deceive. |
| misleading | deceptive. |
| misleadingly | (Adv.) MISLEADING. |
| misrepresent | to give a false or misleading representation of. |
| misseem | (Spenser) to be unbecoming to. |
| mythomane | someone who is prone to lie or believe in lies. |
| nontruth | an untruth. |
| outbluff | to surpass in bluffing. |
| outcheat | to exceed in cheating. |
| outlie | to lie outside, be outlying to surpass in lying |
| outtrick | to surpass in tricking. |
| palter | to talk or act in an insincere or deceitful manner. |
| palterer | one who palters, talks in a deceitful manner. |
| perfidy | treachery; breaking of promise. |
| perjure | to lie under oath to tell the truth. |
| personate | to assume the identity of, with intent to deceive. |
| personation | the act of personating. |
| phenakism | deceit. |
| phoney | counterfeit, fake; (verb) to fake, counterfeit. |
| phoneyness | the state of being phoney. |
| phonily | (Adv.) PHONY, fake. |
| phoniness | the state of being phony. |
| phony | counterfeit, fake (noun) a fake; (verb) to fake, counterfeit |
| plagiary | (Arch.) one who plagiarises. |
| playact | to act as in a play, pretend. |
| poop | the after part of a ship; (verb) to fool, cozen. |
| porky | plump like a pig (noun) a lie |
| possum | an aphetic form of opossum; (verb) to play possum. |
| poupe | (Obs.) to befool, to cozen. |
| pretence | the act of pretending. |
| pretenceless | without pretence. |
| pretend | to assume or display a false appearance of. |
| pretendedly | (Adv.) PRETENDED. |
| pretendingly | (Adv.) PRETENDING. |
| pretense | (US) the act of pretending. |
| prevaricate | to avoid telling the truth by being ambiguous, evading, or misleading. |
| pseudograph | spurious writing; forgery. |
| pseudologia | lying in speech or writing. |
| pseudologue | a pathological liar. |
| pseudology | the art or science of lying. |
| puton | a hoax. |
| ramp | an inclined plane, a slope; (verb) to swindle, esp by the practice of causing large, false increases in the price of shares etc. by dishonest means. |
| ringster | a member of a ring, esp a price-fixing ring. |
| ripoff | a swindle, an excessively high price. |
| rook | a bird of the crow family (verb) to swindle |
| roorbach | a defamatory falsehood published for political effect. |
| roorback | a defamatory falsehood published for political effect. |
| ruse | a deception. |
| scam | (Sl.) a swindle; (verb) to swindle. |
| scammer | one who perpetrates scams. |
| scamster | one who perpetrates scams. |
| schnook | (Yiddish) a stupid, easily deceived person. |
| shaft | anything long and straight; (verb) to dupe, swindle. |
| sham | to feign. |
| sharker | one who lives by sharking, a swindler. |
| sharper | a cheat or hoaxer, esp someone who cheats at cards. |
| shavie | (Scots) a trick. |
| shnook | (Yiddish) an unscrupulous person; a crook. |
| shyster | one who is professionally unscrupulous esp in the practice of law or politics. |
| simular | counterfeit, feigned; (noun, arch.) one that simulates, a dissembler. |
| skelder | to beg; to swindle; to cheat. |
| slanter | (Aust. sl.) a dodge, a trick. |
| slenter | (Aust. sl.) a dodge, a trick. |
| slinter | (Aust. sl.) a dodge, a trick. |
| sophistic | relating to sophistry. |
| sophistical | relating to sophistry. |
| sophistry | deceptively subtle reasoning or argumentation; an argument used to deceive. |
| speciosity | the state of being specious. |
| speciousness | the state of being specious. |
| spieler | a swindler or card-sharper; a gambling den. |
| spoof | a parody (verb) to ridicule in fun |
| spoofer | one who spoofs, a hoaxer. |
| spoofery | the practice of spoofing. |
| spuriosity | the state of being spurious. |
| spurious | not genuine, sham. |
| spuriously | (Adv.) SPURIOUS, not genuine. |
| spuriousness | the state of being spurious. |
| stiff | rigid (noun) a corpse; (verb, sl.) to cheat, rob |
| subreption | a deliberate misrepresentation; an inference drawn from it. |
| subreptitious | fraudulently obtained; surreptitious. |
| subreptitiously | (Adv.) SUBREPTITIOUS, fraudulently obtained; surreptitious. |
| subterfuge | deception by artifice or stratagem in order to conceal or evade. |
| supercherie | (Fr.) deception, hoax, fraud. |
| suppositious | fraudulently substituted. |
| supposititious | fraudulently substituted. |
| swiftie | (Aust. sl.) a trick, deception. |
| swifty | (Aust. sl.) a trick, deception. |
| swindle | a fraud, a cheat; (verb) to take money or property from by fraudulent means. |
| swindler | one that swindles. |
| swiz | a swindle; (verb) to deceive. |
| swizzle | a fraud, a great disappointment; (verb) to defraud, cheat. |
| thimblerig | a sleight-of-hand trick played with three small cups, shaped like thimbles, and a small ball or little pea; (verb) to cheat by trickery. |
| thimblerigger | one who thimblerigs. |
| thimblerigging | the act of thimblerigging. |
| treacher | (Obs.) a traitor; a deceiver. |
| trick | a deceitful device (verb) to deceive |
| tricker | one who plays tricks. |
| trickery | deception. |
| trickie | full of tricks. |
| trickiness | the state of being tricky. |
| trickish | given to tricks. |
| trickishly | (Adv.) TRICKISH, given to tricks. |
| trickless | without tricks. |
| tricksily | (Adv.) TRICKSY, tricky. |
| tricksome | full of tricks. |
| tricksy | exhibiting artfulness; trickish. |
| tricky | full of tricks. |
| truqueur | (Fr.) one who engages in trucage, the faking of works of art. |
| unbeguile | to set free from the influence of guile; to undeceive. |
| undeceivable | not deceivable. |
| undeceiver | one who undeceives. |
| untruth | something that is untrue. |
| weasel | a small carnivore with long slender body, furtive and bloodthirsty (verb) to get out of something by devious means |
| weaseler | one who weasels. |
| weaseller | one who weasels. |
| weaselly | like a weasel, shifty. |
| wile | a trick, device (verb) to beguile, inveigle |
| wileful | full of wiles; trickish; deceitful. |
| wyle | to beguile. |
| yanker | (Scots) a rap; a big lie. |