Meanings
plural dissemblers
- 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 231 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, →OCLCSynonyms: hypocrite, phony, pretender, bamboozler, bouncer, bullshitter, cheat, cheater
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSomeone who dissembles.
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
- Middle Englishdissimulour
- Englishdissembler
A modification of earlier dissimuler (from Middle English dissimulour) after resemble and semblance; equivalent to dissemble + -er.
More words from Middle English
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
dissembler. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissembler
“dissembler.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissembler. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “dissembler,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/dissembler.
Source: dissembler on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.