# hypocrisy

Pronunciation: say "hi-POK-ruh-see" US /hɪˈpɑkɹəsi/, UK /hɪˈpɒkɹəsi/

## Noun

1. The practice of doing what one criticizes in others, or more broadly, behavior that contradicts the beliefs, standards, or virtues one claims or implies one has.
   - Simple: Doing the same bad thing you blame other people for, or acting against what you say you believe.
   - _Voters were angered by the hypocrisy of a senator who preached family values while having an affair._
   - _There's a certain hypocrisy in lecturing your kids about screen time while scrolling through your phone at dinner._
2. Claiming or pretending to have beliefs, standards, virtues, motives, or other qualities that one does not really have.
   - Simple: Pretending to have beliefs, values, or feelings that you do not really have.
   - _Critics dismissed the company's sudden concern for the environment as rank hypocrisy._
   - _The minister faced a charge of hypocrisy when his private letters revealed his contempt for the poor he claimed to serve._
3. A particular hypocritical act, statement, or attitude.
   - Simple: One example of someone saying one thing and doing another.
   - _The reporter exposed one hypocrisy after another in the mayor's record._
   - _The memoir lays bare the small hypocrisies of suburban life._

## Origin

From Middle English ipocrisie, from Old French ypocrisie, from Late Latin hypocrisis, from Ancient Greek ὑπόκρισις (hupókrisis, "answer, stage acting, pretense"), from ὑποκρίνομαι (hupokrínomai, "to play a part, dissemble, feign"), from ὑπό (hupó, "under") + κρίνω (krínō, "to separate, judge"). It replaced the native Old English līċettung.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hypocrisy (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).