Synonyms for dishonest
- adjective
Synonyms by meaning
Adjective
1. Deceitful
deceitful, fraudulent, unscrupulous, unprincipled, immoral, corrupt, venal, crooked, underhand, corruptible, purchasable, knavish, bribable, unethical, cunning, insidious, wicked, tricky, sinister dated
2. Untruthful — dishonorable; shameful; indecent; unchaste; lewd
untruthful, disingenuous, false, mendacious, deceptive, roguish, insincere, unfair, dishonorable US, dishonourable UK, double-dealing, double-faced, shady, dirty, thieving, perfidious, snide, treacherous, faithless, slippery, indirect, double-tongued, double
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Dishonorable; shameful; indecent; unchaste; lewd.
- adj. 2
Not honest; shoddy.
Related words
- Word family
- dishonestly dishonesty
Example sentences
- fraudulent The dictator took power in a fraudulent election.
- unscrupulous Many public school cafeterias are unscrupulous.
- deceitful I learned the hard way that silence can be deceitful.
- unprincipled Do you think Tom is unprincipled?
- disingenuous Tom was either being naïve or disingenuous.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| dishonest | steady | |
| fraudulent | steady | |
| unscrupulous | steady | |
| deceitful | rising | |
| unprincipled | steady | |
| disingenuous | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- false1, dirty2, sharp1, shady2, snide1, venal2
- 6 letters
- double2, unfair2, wicked2, tricky2
- 7 letters
- corrupt2, crooked2, immoral3, cunning2, roguish, knavish
- 8 letters
- indirect3, sinister3, slippery3, thieving2, bribable
- 9 letters
- unethical4, deceptive3, insidious4, deceitful3, insincere3, faithless, underhand
- 10 letters
- fraudulent3, untruthful3, mendacious3, perfidious
- 11 letters
- treacherous3, corruptible4, purchasable
- 12 letters
- unscrupulous4, disingenuous5, dishonorable5, unprincipled4
- 13 letters
- dishonourable
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (dirty2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- malhonnête
- Italiano
- disonesto
- Español
- deshonesto
- Català
- deshonest