deceit
/dəˈsit/
noun
Familiar
1.n.the quality of being fraudulent
2.n.a misleading falsehood
3.n.the act of deceiving
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deceit and decent differ by a single letter, buried far enough into the word to be easy to miss. deceit means “the quality of being fraudulent”. decent means “socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous”. decent is the more common of the two in everyday English.
/dəˈsit/
1.n.the quality of being fraudulent
2.n.a misleading falsehood
3.n.the act of deceiving
/ˈdisənt/
1.adj.socially or conventionally correct; refined or virtuous
“from a decent family”
2.adj.in harmony with the spirit of particular persons or occasion
“a decent burial”
3.adj.conforming to conventions of sexual behavior
“speech in this circle, if not always decent, never became lewd”
| deceit | decent | |
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /dəˈsit/ | /ˈdisənt/ |
| Said | duh-SEET | DEE-suhnt |
| Syllables | 2 | 2 |
| Letters | 6 | 6 |
| Parts of speech | noun | adjective, adverb |
| Senses | 3 | 7 |
| How common | Familiar | Common |
| Synonyms | fraudulence | nice |
Full entry for deceit · Full entry for decent · More comparisons