Duplicity means deceitful behaviour, pretending one thing while meaning another. It comes from a Latin word for twofold, and it sounds like duplicate, but the words are unrelated in meaning.
Wait... Is It About Copying?
No. Despite the sound, duplicity isn't about making copies. It's about double-dealing: saying one thing while secretly planning or meaning another. The "twofold" idea is the clue.
Making a copy? ❌ That's duplication.
Pretending one thing while meaning another? ✅ That's duplicity.
What Does Duplicity Mean?
Duplicity is deceitful behaviour, where someone presents one face and hides their true intentions.
The company's duplicity was revealed when its advertised promises were never kept.
🔊 Pronunciation
doo-PLIS-ih-tee
The stress is on the middle part: PLIS. The ending is ih-tee.
🗣️ Natural Examples
The villain's duplicity made even his friends doubt him.
"I can't trust her," said Sam. "Her duplicity is too clever."
The novel explores the duplicity of a family that smiled in public and whispered in private.
🛠️ How to Use It
Duplicity is formal and serious. It suits writing about stories, history and character.
- It's a noun: the duplicity of, deep duplicity.
- The adjective is duplicitous: a duplicitous plan.
- Keep examples about characters or general behaviour, not real named people.
🤝 Common Word Partners
- deep duplicity
- the duplicity of (the plot)
- full of duplicity
- expose duplicity
- duplicitous behaviour
👨👩👧 Word Family
- duplicity (noun): deceitful behaviour.
- duplicitous (adjective): deceitful, saying one thing and meaning another.
- duplicitously (adverb): in a deceitful way.
👯 Similar and Related Words
- deceit: the everyday word for tricking others.
- double-dealing: a clear, plain-English phrase for duplicity.
- mendacity: a habit of lying. See Mendacity.
- duplicate: to copy. The sound-alike trap.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Duplicity is not duplication.
❌ The duplicity of the photo made four copies.
✅ The duplication of the photo made four copies.
Duplicitous, not duplicitive.
❌ She was duplicitive.
✅ She was duplicitous.
💬 In a Conversation
Mia: The shopkeeper said the sale was honest.
Sam: He was smiling, but his sign said something else.
Mia: That's duplicity.
Sam: Or it's a bad sign.
🕵️ Where Does It Come From?
This is the OddLingo part: duplicity comes from a Latin word for twofold, which the English meaning built on.
What we can say:
- It comes from Latin duplex, "double, twofold", from duo ("two") and a root related to folding.
- Late Latin duplicitas meant "doubleness". The English deceit sense is recorded in the 15th century.
- The word sounds like duplicate, but the two words are unrelated in meaning. The sound is a trap, not a link.
So duplicity has always been about having two faces, not two copies.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Think of duplicity as two faces: one for the crowd, one for the back room. Duplicate, by contrast, is only a copy.