insincere
/ɪnsɪnˈsɪə
/adjective
Not expressing genuine feelings: she flashed him an insincere smile...
- It's not an insincere smile, just rather mysterious: you see it neither arriving nor departing.
- She describes this binding of her brother's death with a call to arms as insincere, hypocritical and exploitative.
- Hallie gave him a quick, insincere smile that looked more like a grimace.
Synonyms
false, fake, hollow, artificial, feigned, pretended, put-on, exaggerated, overdone, lacking sincerity, not candid, not frank;
disingenuous, dissembling, dissimulating, devious, hypocritical, cynical, deceitful, deceptive, duplicitous, dishonest, underhand, double-dealing, faithless, disloyal, treacherous, two-faced, Janus-faced, lying, untruthful, mendacious, evasive, shifty, slippery
informal phoney, pretend, pseud
Derivatives
insincerely
/ adverb ...- ‘Thank you,’ she said insincerely, though she knew it was rude.
- He looked up and smiled as insincerely as he could.
- Students would not succumb to their desire to insincerely reproduce what their teachers profess.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin insincerus, from in- 'not' + sincerus 'sincere'.