Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person given to hypocrisy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who assumes a false appearance; one who feigns to be what he is not, or to feel or believe what he does not actually feel or believe; especially, a false pretender to virtue or piety.
  • noun Synonyms Dissembler, Hypocrite (see dissembler); Pharisee, formalist, cheat.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who plays a part; especially, one who, for the purpose of winning approbation of favor, puts on a fair outside seeming; one who feigns to be other and better than he is; a false pretender to virtue or piety; one who simulates virtue or piety.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English ipocrite, from Old French, from Late Latin hypocrita, from Greek hupokritēs, actor, from hupokrīnesthai, to play a part, pretend; see hypocrisy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French ypocrite (Modern French hypocrite), from Ecclesiastical Latin hypocrita, from Ancient Greek ὑποκριτής (hupokritēs, "actor, hypocrite"), from ὑποκρίνομαι (hupokrinomai, "I answer, act, feign").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hypocrite.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • i like how much this word sounds like Hippocratic (Hippocratic Oath).

    it is not actually ironic, but i still find it amusing.

    August 20, 2009