dissembler

D2I1S1S1E1M3B3L1E1R1

noun

Someone who dissembles.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

noundissembler (plural dissemblers)

plural dissemblers

  1. Someone who dissembles.

    [T]he Earl vvas the vvorſe Philoſopher, being a great Reſenter and a vveak Diſſembler of the leaſt diſgrace: […]

    c. 1635 (date written), Henry Wotton, “Of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex; and George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham: Some Observations by Way of Parallel in the Time of Their Estates of Favour”, in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ. Or, A Collection of Lives, Letters, Poems; […], London: […] Thomas Maxey, for R[ichard] Marriot, G[abriel] Bedel, and T[imothy] Garthwait, published 1651, →OCLC, page 23
    1 more example

    [Winston] Churchill, in this telling, was not just a racist but a hypocrite, a dissembler, a narcissist, an opportunist, an imperialist, a drunk, a strategic bungler, a tax dodger, a neglectful father, a credit-hogging author, a terrible judge of character and, most of all, a masterful mythmaker.

    2021 October 26, Peter Baker, “The Case Against Winston Churchill”, in The New York Times Book Review, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC

    Synonyms: hypocrite, phony, pretender, bamboozler, bouncer, bullshitter, cheat, cheater

Synonyms & antonyms

More synonyms by meaning

nouna person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Middle Englishdissimulour
  2. Englishdissembler

A modification of earlier dissimuler (from Middle English dissimulour) after resemble and semblance; equivalent to dissemble + -er.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian лицемер
  • лицемер (licemer)someone who dissembles
German Gleisner, Heuchler
  • Gleisnersomeone who dissembles
  • Heuchlersomeone who dissembles
Italian dissimulatore
  • dissimulatoresomeone who dissembles
Latin dissimulātor
  • dissimulātorsomeone who dissembles
Polish obłudnik, obłudnica
  • obłudniksomeone who dissembles
  • obłudnicasomeone who dissembles
Russian лицеме́р, обма́нщик
  • лицеме́р (licemér)someone who dissembles
  • обма́нщик (obmánščik)someone who dissembles
  • притво́рщик (pritvórščik)someone who dissembles
Cite this entry
APA

dissembler. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissembler

MLA

“dissembler.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissembler. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dissembler,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissembler.

Source: dissembler on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.