deceit
/dɪˈsiːt/noun
deceit is spelled D-E-C-E-I-T: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,209th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, deceit means “An act or practice intended to deceive; a trick” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of deceit is deceits.
How many letters and syllables are in deceit?
| Letters | 6: D-E-C-E-I-T |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.7 times per million words; the 21,209th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is deceit?
Deceit appears 1.7 times per million words in written English, the 21,209th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce deceit?
- /dɪˈsiːt/
Deceit has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-deceit.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of deceit
- deceits plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does deceit mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
An act or practice intended to deceive; a trick.
The whole conversation was merely a deceit.
- 2
An act of deceiving someone.
- 3
The state of being deceitful or deceptive.
- 4
The tort or fraudulent representation of a material fact made with knowledge of its falsity, or recklessly, or without reasonable grounds for believing its truth and with intent to induce reliance on it; the plaintiff justifiably relies on the deception, to his injury.
- 5
rareA group of lapwings.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Deceit in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tromperie, ruse , fraude |
| German | Betrügerei, Betrug , Täuschung , Falschheit |
| Portuguese | velhacaria, fraude , logro |
| Spanish | bellaquería, fraude, engaño, embeleco, trafa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does deceit come from?
From Middle English deceyte, from Old French deceite, deçoite, from decevoir (“to deceive”), from Latin dēcipere (“to cheat, mislead”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).