hypocrisy

noun [hɪˈpɑkɹəsi]

pronunciation

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, open source

Hypocrisy is the gap between what people claim to value and how they actually behave, especially when they condemn in others the very thing they do themselves.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Definitions

The habit of presenting yourself as more moral, principled or sincere than you really are, while acting against the standards you profess.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
A particular case of this, such as criticising someone for a fault you openly share or demanding rules for others that you refuse to follow.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
Pretended feeling or belief: showing sympathy, piety or outrage that you do not actually have, in order to win approval.

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Examples

Voters are quick to spot hypocrisy when a politician who preaches thrift is caught spending public money on luxuries.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
It would be hypocrisy for me to tell you to stop smoking while I still have a pack in my pocket.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
The novel exposes the hypocrisies of a small town that values respectability above kindness.

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Usage

Hypocrisy is one of the most common charges in public argument, because it lets a critic attack a person instead of a position. Pointing out that a campaigner for green travel flies to conferences, for example, can be fair comment, yet it does not show that the campaigner's argument is wrong. Dismissing a claim because its speaker fails to live up to it is an appeal to hypocrisy, a form of the ad hominem fallacy.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Not every inconsistency counts as hypocrisy. People who change their minds after new evidence, or who try and fail to meet their own ideals, are usually described as inconsistent or weak rather than hypocritical. The word implies pretence: the hypocrite keeps up a public image of virtue while knowing that private conduct does not match it, or holds others to a standard that he or she quietly exempts from. That element of pretence is what makes the accusation sting.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Most often the noun takes no plural, as in accused of hypocrisy or the height of hypocrisy. Used for separate instances, as in the hypocrisies of the age, it does take one; Webster's 1913 dictionary records the plural hypocrisies. A person who practises it is a hypocrite, the adjective is hypocritical and the adverb hypocritically. Frequent phrases include sheer hypocrisy, blatant hypocrisy, rank hypocrisy and to accuse someone of hypocrisy.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Word forms

Regular forms according to English morphology (editorial description); plural recorded in Webster's 1913 dictionary.

word forms

przypadek	forma
singular	hypocrisy
plural	hypocrisies

Word forms: Editorial team

Collocations

sheer hypocrisy

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
blatant hypocrisy

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
rank hypocrisy

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)
the height of hypocrisy

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accuse someone of hypocrisy

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Synonyms · Antonyms

Synonyms insincerity, double standards, duplicity

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Antonyms sincerity, honesty, integrity

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Etymology

From Old French hypocrisie, from Latin hypocrisis and Greek hypokrisis, which meant a reply or answer, then the playing of a part on the stage, and finally hypocrisy. Behind it stands the verb hypokrinesthai, “to reply, to play a part”, formed from hypo, “under”, and the middle voice of krinein, “to judge, discern”. Skeat records Middle English forms such as ipocrisye in Chaucer and ypocrisie in Piers Plowman; hypocrite comes from the same source through Greek hypokrites.

source

W. W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., Oxford 1910, open source

also

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913, open source

Related words

hypocrite , noun
hypocritical , adjective
hypocritically , adverb

Related entries

Questions and answers

What does hypocrisy mean?

Hypocrisy means claiming to hold certain beliefs or standards while acting against them. A parent who shouts at children for shouting is a simple everyday example.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

What is the difference between hypocrisy and inconsistency?

Inconsistency just means that words and actions do not line up. Hypocrisy adds pretence: the person keeps claiming a virtue they know they do not practise, or judges others by a rule they excuse themselves from.

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Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Is pointing out hypocrisy a good argument?

It can reveal that someone is not sincere, but it does not prove their claim false. Rejecting an argument only because the speaker is a hypocrite is a version of the ad hominem fallacy.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)

Where does the word hypocrisy come from?

Its source is Greek hypokrisis, passed on to English by way of Latin and French; the Greek word originally meant answering and later acting a part on stage. In origin, then, a hypocrite is someone playing a part.

source

Editorial team (in-house source, no external address)