English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

dis- +‎ ingenuous

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ˌdɪs.ɪnˈd͡ʒɛn.ju.əs/

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Adjective[edit]

disingenuous (comparative more disingenuous, superlative most disingenuous)

1. Not honourable; unworthy of honour.
2. Not ingenuous; not frank or open.

   Synonym: uncandid

   • 1726, William Broome, edited by Maynard Mack, The Poems of Alexander Pope: The Odyssey of Homer. Books XIII-XXIV, volume 10, Methuen, published 1969, page 378:

     I am not so vain as to think these Remarks free from faults, nor so disingenuous as not to confess them:

3. Assuming a pose of naïveté to make a point or for deception.
   • 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 2, page 87:

     But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.

Derived terms[edit]

• disingenuously
• disingenuousness

Collocations[edit]

Translations[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• “disingenuous”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “disingenuous”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “disingenuous”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.