How to Use duplicitous in a Sentence

duplicitous

adjective
  • But there’s a deeper charge to living with this duplicitous point of view.
    — Erika Stalder, refinery29.com, 19 Oct. 2020
  • Johnson, who was duplicitous and forceful, found a way through.
    — Sam Knight, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2021
  • Feathers might not even be the only death decoys that duplicitous birds toss around.
    — Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 16 Nov. 2021
  • But comics are a more duplicitous and all-devouring game than baseball.
    — Scott Bradfield, The New Republic, 16 Dec. 2021
  • DiCaprio costars as her duplicitous husband Ernest, who has a hand in their deaths.
    — Eric Andersson, Peoplemag, 26 Dec. 2023
  • The effort to obtain the records of Boys' mother was even more duplicitous, the state alleged.
    — Ken Daley, NOLA.com, 16 Oct. 2017
  • Along the way, some people who dealt with her found her duplicitous and deceitful, while others found her a heroic survivor.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 22 May 2020
  • While both brothers are duplicitous, Chuck’s actions feel like more of a betrayal.
    — Jeremy Egner, New York Times, 12 June 2017
  • From such duplicitous beginnings, the idea of gimmickry soon spread.
    — Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 9 Nov. 2020
  • Waller has a duplicitous plan to use the Suicide Squad to cover up another plan.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 6 Aug. 2021
  • Of course, the duplicitous world of the Checquy isn’t exactly real life.
    — Emily Zemler, latimes.com, 27 June 2019
  • The cultural effects of having a duplicitous leader at the helm are far-reaching.
    — Stephanie Hartman, Forbes, 25 May 2021
  • Most of his Greek colleagues were duplicitous and covertly aligned with the troika or Greek oligarchs.
    — Martin Sandbu, Foreign Affairs, 12 Dec. 2017
  • For Brexit to succeed we must get rid of this awful, duplicitous PM.
    — Natasha Bach, Fortune, 9 July 2018
  • After these duplicitous peace talks, Saru hails the captain in his ready room and reports Cornwell's fate.
    — Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 23 Oct. 2017
  • On the contrary, double-crosses abound, as both sides in the brewing gangland war attempt to gain the upper hand through duplicitous means.
    — Nick Schager, EW.com, 2 Nov. 2020
  • The takeaway, then, isn’t that students are duplicitous and depraved or that technology has eroded their moral core.
    — Jay Caspian Kang, New Yorker, 19 May 2026
  • This reduces the risk of people unknowingly clicking on duplicitous links, helping ward off the threat.
    — Mike Wilson, Forbes, 6 Jan. 2025
  • Because, to a certain extent, Molina is duplicitous, not in a negative way, but as a way of survival.
    — Destiny Jackson, Deadline, 20 Nov. 2025
  • Whereas Penelope is complex, and smart, and funny and daring, and duplicitous.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 28 Dec. 2020
  • Crudup stars as Jack Billings, who leads a duplicitous operation selling timeshares on the moon.
    — Antonio Ferme, Variety, 16 Feb. 2023
  • People have reported duplicitous postings for cheap hard disk drives and USB flash drives.
    — Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 17 Jan. 2023
  • Her duplicitous plan went awry when Lederer asked for the recipe and continued to follow up in later months trying to acquire it.
    — Amy Dewall Dadmun, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 21 Apr. 2018
  • Blair thinks Vanessa is being duplicitous in helping Serena, but none of them do anything about it.
    — Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 19 Sep. 2018
  • In other words, was Gatsby written to be a man who led a lost battalion, or was he written as being duplicitous in making that kind of claim?
    — Alice George, Smithsonian Magazine, 8 Nov. 2023
  • But the hardest part of the novel wasn’t scripting the scheming, backstabbing, or duplicitous behavior.
    — Literary Hub, 29 Jan. 2026
  • But instead of joining forces to take out their duplicitous Traitor, Danielle and Carolyn appear poised to set their sights on each other.
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 24 Jan. 2025
  • In contrast, Cardinal Lawrence isn’t as duplicitous, and Davies leaned into that.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 26 Oct. 2024
  • Much like the play it’s adapted from, Were the World Mine is hazy, romantic, duplicitous and delightful.
    — Sadie Collins, Them, 24 Jan. 2025
  • Vergennes has seen it all, and when Franklin settles with the British in a duplicitous last diplomatic pirouette, he is irked but not unduly.
    — Roger Cohen, New York Times, 18 Apr. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'duplicitous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: