Hypocritical

How to spell hypocritical

12 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce hypocritical

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does hypocritical mean?

1. adjectiveBehaving in a way that contradicts the moral standards or beliefs one claims to hold.

Hypocritical in a sentence

• It felt hypocritical to lecture his staff about punctuality when he arrived late every morning.

• Critics called the policy hypocritical because the same officials had condemned it only a year earlier.

Where does hypocritical come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek hypokrites, which literally meant 'a stage actor', someone who plays a part or speaks from behind a mask. That noun grew out of the verb hypokrinesthai, 'to answer, to play a part, to pretend', built from hypo- meaning 'under' and krinein meaning 'to judge or decide', so the underlying image is of judging or speaking from beneath a disguise. Because actors pretended to be people they were not, the word slid from the theatre into a moral sense: a hypocrite was someone who feigned virtue they did not truly hold. It reached English in the 1200s through Latin hypocrita and Old French ypocrite, and the adjective hypocritical was later formed with the ending -ical. The hidden Greek 'y' that sounds like a short 'i' (hyp-, not hip-) and the single 'c' before -ritical are the spots that trip writers up.

How the word is built

• hypo- (under)
• crit (from Greek krinein: to judge, decide)
• -ical (adjective suffix)