Deceive

How to spell deceive

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce deceive

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deceive mean?

1. verbTo make someone believe something that is not true, usually for personal gain.

Deceive in a sentence

• The advertisement was designed to deceive careful shoppers about the real price.

• He tried to deceive the auditors by altering the dated invoices.

Where does deceive come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin decipere, which literally meant 'to catch' or 'to ensnare', built from the prefix de- meaning 'from' or 'away' and capere meaning 'to take' or 'to seize'. The underlying image was of trapping someone, of catching them out, which shaded into the modern sense of leading a person into a false belief. English borrowed it through the Old French deceivre during the 1300s, and the spelling settled into the -ceive pattern that English uses for words drawn from this same capere root. Its close cousins receive, perceive and conceive all share that ending, and all of them follow the 'i before e except after c' rule, which is exactly the trap here: because the e and i come straight after the c, they are written 'ei', not 'ie'. The same Latin capere also gave us 'capture' and 'capable', so the family tree is a useful memory hook.

How the word is built

• de- (from, away)
• ceive (from Latin capere: to take, seize)