deceive
de·ceive/dɪˈsiːv/verb
deceive is spelled D-E-C-E-I-V-E, 2 syllables: de·ceive. The wrong spelling people search most is decieve: about 320 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Deceive is a verb meaning “To trick or mislead”.
How many letters and syllables are in deceive?
| Letters | 7: D-E-C-E-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: de·ceive |
| In writing | 2.4 times per million words; the 17,587th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, decieve, about 320 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell deceive?
Deceive is spelled D-E-C-E-I-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for deceive in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is deceive?
Deceive appears 2.4 times per million words in written English, the 17,587th 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 deceive?
- /dɪˈsiːv/
Deceive has 2 syllables, split de·ceive in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-deceive.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of deceive
- deceives present, singular, he/she/it
- deceiving participle, present
- deceived participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does deceive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To trick or mislead.
It feels painful to begin seeing clearly, that you’ve been deceived by the very people and institutions you trusted to guide you.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Deceive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense trick or mislead:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | tromper, leurrer, séduire |
| German | betrügen, täuschen |
| Portuguese | enganar |
| Spanish | engañar, decebir, meter la yuca, meter el dedo, embaír, descrestar |
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 deceive come from?
From Middle English deceyven, from Anglo-Norman deceivre, from Latin dēcipiō (“to deceive; beguile; entrap”), from dē- (“from”) + capiō (“to seize”); see captive. Compare conceive, perceive, receive. Displaced native Old English beswīcan.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).