Synonyms for Hypocrisy: 30 Clear Words and Examples

Your friend tells you to stop wasting money. Then he buys a fifth pair of sneakers. That is hypocrisy. It means saying one thing and doing another, or pretending to be better than you are. Most of us notice it fast in other people. Finding the right word for it is harder. This guide covers synonyms for hypocrisy that you can use in essays, emails, blog posts, and everyday talk. Each word comes with a simple meaning and two examples. Some are exact matches. Others are close cousins, and we will tell you which is which. If you have ever searched for another word for hypocrisy, you are in the right place. Students, writers, and English learners can all use these synonyms for hypocrisy to sound clearer and more precise.

Double Standards

Meaning:
Applying one set of rules to yourself and a stricter set to everyone else.

Examples:

• The coach punished the new players for being late but ignored his own favorites.
• People call it a double standard when boys get praise for the same thing girls get scolded for.

Type: Context specific alternative

Insincerity

Meaning:
The quality of pretending to feel something you do not really feel.

Examples:

• I could hear the insincerity in her voice when she said she loved the gift.
• His speech was full of insincerity, and nobody believed a word.

Type: Near synonym

Duplicity

Meaning:
Deceitful behavior where you show one face to one person and another face to someone else.

Examples:

• The manager’s duplicity came out when two staff members compared his promises.
• She felt hurt by her partner’s duplicity after finding the hidden messages.

Type: Near synonym

Two Facedness

Meaning:
The habit of acting friendly to someone’s face and speaking badly about them later.

Examples:

• Her two facedness made it hard to trust anything she said at the party.
• I can’t stand the two facedness of people who smile at you and gossip behind your back.

Pretense

Meaning:
An act of pretending to have a quality or feeling that you do not have.

Examples:

• He kept up the pretense of being rich by borrowing his uncle’s car.
• The pretense ended when the teacher asked him to explain the book he claimed to love.

Type: Near synonym

Phoniness

Meaning:
The quality of being fake, especially in how you act or what you claim to be.

Examples:

• I left the networking event tired of all the phoniness in the room.
• Her phoniness showed when she suddenly “loved” the same band as the popular kids.

Type: Near synonym

Sanctimony

Meaning:
A show of being morally better than other people, often while not living up to it yourself.

Examples:

• His sanctimony about recycling was hard to take, since he drove everywhere alone.
• The article was dripping with sanctimony and offered no real help.

Self Righteousness

Meaning:
A strong belief that you are more moral than others.

Examples:

• Her self righteousness annoyed the whole team during the meeting.
• He lectured everyone about honesty with a self righteousness that felt out of place.

Type: Near synonym

Cant

Meaning:
Empty talk about good values that the speaker does not truly follow.

Examples:

• The ad was full of cant about caring for customers while hiding the real fees.
• I stopped reading the speech because it was just political cant.

Type: Context specific alternative

Dissimulation

Meaning:
The act of hiding your true thoughts or feelings behind a false appearance.

Examples:

• The spy was a master of dissimulation and never let his real plans show.
• Her calm smile was pure dissimulation, because she was furious inside.

Type: Near synonym

Deceit

Meaning:
The act of making someone believe something that is not true.

Examples:

• The seller’s deceit cost the family their savings.
• He admitted his deceit and promised to be honest from then on.

Type: Near synonym

Dishonesty

Meaning:
A lack of truthfulness in what you say or do.

Examples:

• Cheating on the exam was an act of dishonesty that the school took seriously.
• Dishonesty in a small business can quickly ruin its good name.

Type: Near synonym

Falseness

Meaning:
The quality of not being real, true, or genuine.

Examples:

• I felt the falseness in his friendly hello.
• The falseness of the praise became clear when she said the opposite online.

Type: Near synonym

Deception

Meaning:
The act of misleading someone on purpose.

Examples:

• The scam relied on deception from the very first email.
• Hiding the damage on the used laptop was clear deception.

Type: Near synonym

Posturing

Meaning:
Acting in a way meant to impress others rather than showing what you truly believe.

Examples:

• The debate was mostly posturing, with each speaker trying to look tough.
• I don’t have time for office posturing when there is real work to do.

Type: Context specific alternative

Humbug

Meaning:
False or misleading talk, often with a show of being good or wise.

Examples:

• My grandfather called the sales pitch pure humbug.
• She saw through the humbug of the self help guru and walked out.

Type: Context specific alternative

Lip Service

Meaning:
Saying you support something without doing anything to back it up.

Examples:

• The company paid lip service to safety but never fixed the broken ladder.
• He gave lip service to healthy eating while ordering fries every day.

Type: Context specific alternative

Sham

Meaning:
Something fake that is made to look real or honest.

Examples:

• The charity turned out to be a sham, and the donors lost their money.
• Everyone knew the interview was a sham because the job was already promised.

Type: Context specific alternative

Facade

Meaning:
A false outer appearance that hides what is really going on.

Examples:

• Behind the facade of a happy family, there were constant arguments.
• The shop’s friendly facade fell away when we asked for a refund.

Type: Context specific alternative

Affectation

Meaning:
Behavior that is put on to impress people and is not natural.

Examples:

• His fake accent was an affectation he picked up after one trip abroad.
• The writer’s fancy vocabulary felt like an affectation rather than a way to be clear.

Type: Near synonym

Fakery

Meaning:
The act of making something false look real.

Examples:

• The influencer’s fakery was exposed when fans found the photos were edited.
• I get tired of the fakery on some reality shows.

Type: Near synonym

Double Dealing

Meaning:
Dishonest behavior in which you secretly work against someone you claim to support.

Examples:

• The partner’s double dealing came to light when he sold the idea to a rival.
• She lost her job over double dealing with a client.

Type: Near synonym

Disingenuousness

Meaning:
Pretending to be more open or innocent than you really are.

Examples:

• His disingenuousness was clear when he claimed he had no idea about the problem.
• I was put off by the disingenuousness of the survey questions.

Type: Near synonym

Bad Faith

Meaning:
Dishonest intent, where someone pretends to act fairly while planning otherwise.

Examples:

• The landlord negotiated in bad faith and never planned to fix the heating.
• They argued in bad faith and ignored every fact we shared.

Type: Context specific alternative

Charade

Meaning:
An obvious act that is meant to fool people but does not.

Examples:

• The surprise party was a charade, since everyone had already heard about it.
• Their friendly handshake was a charade after months of fighting.

Type: Context specific alternative

Pose

Meaning:
A way of acting that is meant to give a false impression of who you are.

Examples:

• His tough guy pose disappeared the moment the dog barked.
• She dropped the pose and admitted she had never read the book.

Type: Context specific alternative

Inconsistency

Meaning:
A mismatch between what a person says and what that person does.

Examples:

• The inconsistency in his advice was obvious, because he never followed it himself.
• Voters noticed the inconsistency between her promises and her votes.

Type: Context specific alternative

Guile

Meaning:
Clever and sly behavior used to trick people.

Examples:

• The fox in the story won the meal with guile instead of strength.
• He used guile to avoid answering the tough question.

Type: Near synonym

Pharisaism

Meaning:
A show of being very religious or moral while ignoring the real spirit of those values.

Examples:

• The author attacked the pharisaism of leaders who preached kindness but showed none.
• Old books often use pharisaism to describe people who judge others while ignoring their own faults.

Type: Context specific alternative

Mendacity

Meaning:
The habit of lying.

Examples:

• The mendacity of the report shocked the board.
• Her mendacity cost her friends who could no longer trust her stories.

Type: Near synonym

Conclusion

Learning synonyms for hypocrisy gives you more ways to say what you mean. Better word choice makes your writing sharper, your speaking clearer, and your vocabulary stronger. It also helps you match your tone to the moment, whether you want to be gentle or blunt. Try a few of these words in your next email, essay, blog post, or school assignment. Use them in daily conversations too. The more you practice, the more natural they will feel.