hypocrisy
Noun
Easy difficulty
What does “hypocrisy” mean?
noun.the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.
SAT Usage
the term is often found in passages discussing ethical dilemmas, social criticism, or character analysis. It emphasizes a dissonance between stated values and actual behavior, highlighting moral failings, and differs from related concepts like "duplicity," which emphasizes deceit rather than a failure to live up to one's own standards.
Common Confusions
Hypocrisy implies a failure to align one's actions with claimed beliefs, while duplicity usually suggests a deliberate deception or misleading behavior towards others.
Example Sentences
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His public morality was later exposed as pure hypocrisy.
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The study of hypocrisy has advanced significantly in recent decades.
Word Parts: How to Remember “hypocrisy”
Break “hypocrisy” into its parts: hypo- (under, beneath). Knowing roots like these helps you decode unfamiliar SAT vocabulary.
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Prefix:
hypo-under, beneath (Greek)