disingenuous
insincere while pretending to be candid
Word origin: From Latin ingenuus, frank or noble, with the negating prefix dis-.
Disingenuous in a sentence
Here are example sentences showing disingenuous in a sentence.
It was disingenuous of him to feign surprise at a result he engineered.
It was disingenuous of the company to claim surprise at findings its own engineers had flagged years earlier.
Using “disingenuous” well
Disingenuous means falsely sincere, pretending candor while concealing one's real aims, pairing with insincere and deceitful. It is the negation of ingenuous, meaning innocent and frank, a look-alike pair the GRE exploits.
More GRE words starting with D
to engage in something superficially or as a casual pastime
a raised platform for speakers or honored guests
to waste time or act without urgency
to make something slightly wet, or to make a feeling or reaction less strong
marked with spots or patches of color or light
to intimidate or discourage with fear or doubt
to move slowly or waste time idly
a scarcity or shortage of something
Questions about “disingenuous”
See these words the way the GRE tests them.
Definitions in isolation do not stick. Sit a free, full-length GRE mock and meet this vocabulary inside real text completion and sentence equivalence questions, with your score and a worked solution for every answer.