as in joking
marked by or expressive of mild or good-natured teasing
ribbed him with fooling comments about how much his hair had grayed
Synonyms & Similar Words
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as in deception
Synonyms & Similar Words
1
as in tricking
to cause to believe what is untrue
I fooled him into thinking that we were driving to the store, not to his surprise birthday party
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in kidding
to make jokes
an edgy comedian fooling with an appreciative college audience
Synonyms & Similar Words
Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of fooling
Jon Greenberg, The Athletic, 21 Aug. 2024
Feminist activism wasn’t based on fooling women to give up something great.
—Marissa C. Rhodes / Made By History, TIME, 8 Oct. 2024
Verb
At one point, Stevenson, who is entering his second season, even let out a deep sigh when asked about the difficulty of covering Allen, a seasoned vet skilled in fooling defensive backs.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for fooling
Noun
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If the princess world is all sort of deception, this is no artifice at all.Simon Thompson, Forbes, 5 Dec. 2024
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So, in the spirit of humoring that little Gremlin, here’s a rundown of some of Pattinson’s most memorable deceptions and dubious claims.Charisma Madarang, Rolling Stone, 4 Dec. 2024
Verb
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Hard to tell if Carrey was joking or not, given he is known for his comedy.Lisa Respers France, CNN, 11 Dec. 2024
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By emoting or joking online, Swifties are able to connect with one another and find a sense of closure for an event that has been uplifting for many of them.Callum Booth, Forbes, 9 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Sunday outsmarted Adam and Hannah with a ruse at Tribal Council.Dalton Ross, EW.com, 12 Dec. 2024
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That was a ruse for Litton, who does not have a grandson, to get onto campus, Honea said.Phil Helsel, NBC News, 6 Dec. 2024
Verb
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What were once simple schemes have now turned into complex operations capable of deceiving even the most tech-savvy individuals.Kody Boye, USA TODAY, 6 Dec. 2024
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And what happens next is so deceiving.Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 28 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Elegant and the users are never cognizant of the under-the-hood trickery.Lance Eliot, Forbes, 8 Dec. 2024
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Defenses continue to watch film on Darnold, but O'Connell could draw up some trickery by adding Jones to the mix.Yaakov Katz, Newsweek, 28 Nov. 2024
Noun
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This content, much of it clearly generated by AI rather than intended to deceive—a medium of crude self-expression, not sophisticated subterfuge—may have been the technology’s biggest impact on the 2024 presidential election.Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 10 Dec. 2024
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But as the film goes on, those idiosyncrasies reveal themselves to be more like a blend of subterfuge and pleasure, another way for Macrinus to hide his intentions behind a veil.Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 22 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Meanwhile, Tori and Rachel form a tentative alliance, planning to exert their feminine wiles over their respective male allies to keep each other safe.Emma Sharpe, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2024
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For Chandler, a pink bunny suit costume activates his sensitive nature, while Phoebe deals with the wiles of her evil twin Ursula.Cady Lang, TIME, 21 Oct. 2024
Noun
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This stratagem was exacerbated by prosecutors’ racializing of the case.The Editors, National Review, 9 Dec. 2024
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Not according to Hinch and Our Man Petzold, who reports the strategy is part of the Tigers’ plan to maximize the effectiveness of their opener/bulk-relief stratagem.Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press, 23 Sep. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near fooling
Cite this Entry
“Fooling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fooling. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.
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