Meanings
comparative more misleading · superlative most misleading
- Deceptive or tending to mislead or create a false impression, even if technically true.
The problem does not appear so hopeless when misleading metaphor is discarded.
1926, A[rthur] [S]tanley Eddington, “Survey of the Problem”, in The Internal Constitution of the Stars, page 1Synonyms: confusing, misdirective, mistakable · Antonyms: clear, unconfusing, unmisleading
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of mislead
plural misleadings
- A deception that misleads.
According to this tradition, acts of deception that are mere misleadings are morally better than acts of deception that are lies.
2012, Jennifer Mather Saul, Lying, Misleading, and What is Said, page 70Synonyms: disinformation, false pretense, fakeout, head fake, misinformation, ploy, ruse
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveDeceptive or tending to mislead or create a false impression, even if technically true.
nounA deception that misleads.
More synonyms by meaning
adjectivedesigned to deceive or mislead either deliberately or inadvertently
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Translations
Ancient Greek παραγωγός, πλάνος
- παραγωγός (paragōgós)tending to mislead
- πλάνος (plános)tending to mislead
Arabic مُضَلِّل
- مُضَلِّل (muḍallil)tending to mislead
Bulgarian заблуждаващ, подвеждащ
- заблуждаващ (zabluždavašt)tending to mislead
- подвеждащ (podveždašt)tending to mislead
Chinese Mandarin 易誤解的 /易误解的, 誤導的 /误导的
- 易誤解的 /易误解的 (yì wùjiě de)tending to mislead
- 誤導的 /误导的 (wùdǎo de)tending to mislead
- 虛幻的 /虚幻的 (xūhuàn de)tending to mislead
- 使人產生誤解 /使人产生误解 (shǐrén chǎnshēng wùjiě)tending to mislead
Czech zavádějící
- zavádějícítending to mislead
Dutch misleidend
- misleidendtending to mislead
Esperanto miskonkludiga, misgvida
- miskonkludigatending to mislead
- misgvidatending to mislead
Finnish harhaanjohtava, erehdyttävä
- harhaanjohtavatending to mislead
- erehdyttävätending to mislead
- petollinentending to mislead
- harhauttavatending to mislead
French trompeur
- trompeurtending to mislead
German irreführend, missverständlich
- irreführendtending to mislead
- missverständlichtending to mislead
- verwirrendtending to mislead
Greek παραπλανητικός
- παραπλανητικός (paraplanitikós)tending to mislead
Hebrew מטעה
- מטעה (mat'é)tending to mislead
Hindi भ्रामक
- भ्रामक (bhrāmak)tending to mislead
Hungarian félrevezető, megtévesztő
- félrevezetőtending to mislead
- megtévesztőtending to mislead
Italian fuorviante
- fuorviantetending to mislead
Japanese 紛らわしい
- 紛らわしい (magirawashii)tending to mislead
Norwegian Bokmål misvisende
- misvisendetending to mislead
Portuguese enganoso, ilusório
- enganosotending to mislead
- ilusóriotending to mislead
Russian обма́нчивый, дезориенти́рующий
- обма́нчивый (obmánčivyj)tending to mislead
- дезориенти́рующий (dezorijentírujuščij)tending to mislead
- ло́жный (lóžnyj)tending to mislead
- вводя́щий в заблужде́ние (vvodjáščij v zabluždénije)tending to mislead
Spanish engañoso, despistante
- engañosotending to mislead
- despistantetending to mislead
- delusoriotending to mislead
- descaminantetending to mislead
- desencaminantetending to mislead
Swedish vilseledande, missvisande
- vilseledandetending to mislead
- missvisandetending to mislead
Ukrainian обма́нливий
- обма́нливий (obmánlyvyj)tending to mislead
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with misleading
Anagrams
Cite this entry
misleading. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misleading
“misleading.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misleading. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “misleading,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/misleading.
Source: misleading on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.