disingenuous

adjective
UK: /ˌdɪsɪnˈdʒenjuəs/
US: /ˌdɪsɪnˈdʒenjuəs/

  1. Not honest or sincere; giving a false appearance of frankness.

    1. His excuse was disingenuous, he knew more than he admitted.
    2. Her compliments felt disingenuous, I suspected she wanted something from me when she called me a genius, it was disingenuous.

  2. Behaving in a way that is not sincere, especially by pretending that you know less about something than you really do.

    1. It would be disingenuous of me to claim I didn't want the promotion.
    2. Saying he had no prior knowledge of the deal is disingenuous considering his long tenure there.

Synonyms

insincere dishonest deceitful hypocritical duplicitous artful calculating affected

Frequently Asked Questions

The word "disingenuous" in English means: Not honest or sincere; giving a false appearance of frankness., Behaving in a way that is not sincere, especially by pretending that you know less about something than you really do..

The phonetic transcription of "disingenuous" is /ˌdɪsɪnˈdʒenjuəs/ in British English and /ˌdɪsɪnˈdʒenjuəs/ in American English. Click the 🔊 button to hear both pronunciations.

Synonyms for "disingenuous": insincere, dishonest, deceitful, hypocritical, duplicitous, artful, calculating, affected.

Example usage of "disingenuous": "His excuse was disingenuous, he knew more than he admitted.". More examples on the page.