dissemble

1. 1.

   make believe with the intent to deceive

   “He feigned that he was ill”

   “He shammed a headache”

   Synonymsfeignshampretendaffect

   Broadermisrepresent

   Narrowerplay possumtake a divetalk through one's hatmouth
2. 2.

   hide under a false appearance

   “He masked his disappointment”

   Synonymscloakmask

   Broaderdisguise
3. 3.

   behave unnaturally or affectedly

   “She's just acting”

   Synonymspretendact

   Narrowersimulate

Other forms of dissemble

past tense

dissembled·

present participle

dissembling·

third person

dissembles·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about dissemble

What does dissemble mean?

dissemble means "make believe with the intent to deceive". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in dissemble?

dissemble has 3 syllables: dis-sem-ble. The stress falls on "sem". In IPA it is /dɪˈsɛmbəl/.

What is another word for dissemble?

Close synonyms include feign, sham, pretend, affect, cloak. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is dissemble a common word?

dissemble is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with dissemble?

3 words rhyme with dissemble. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.