Disingenuous: meaning, example and synonyms

Disingenuousadj. Not sincere or candid, often by pretending to know less than one does.

Example

The executive's claim that she had never read the safety report was disingenuous, since her handwritten comments appeared in its margins.

Part of speech: adjective
Synonyms: insincere, deceitful, duplicitous, misleading
Antonyms: candid, sincere, honest, frank
Memory tip: DIS-ingenuous: innocence is faked to hide a motive. Not really innocent.

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Check yourself: Disingenuous in context

Pick the word that best completes each text.

Question 1

It was ______ of the company to claim it had no knowledge of the defect, since internal memos showed engineers had warned executives about it two years earlier.

Question 2

The candidate's professed surprise at the poll results seemed ______; her own campaign had commissioned the survey and circulated its findings weeks before.

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