| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| hypocrisy |
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| SYLLABICATION: | hy·poc·ri·sy |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  h -p k r-s |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. hy·poc·ri·sies
1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness. 2. An act or instance of such falseness. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English ipocrisie, from Old French, from Late Latin hypocrisis, play-acting, pretense, from Greek hupokrisis, from hupokr nesthai, to play a part, pretend : hupo-, hypo- + krnesthai, to explain, middle voice of krnein, to decide, judge; see krei- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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