misleading
[adjective]
Synonyms: confusing, ambiguous, deceptive, disingenuous, evasive, false

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Contrasted words: clarifying, elucidative, explanatory, illuminating
Related Words: casuistical, sophistical, specious, wrong, bewildering, confounding, distracting, perplexing, puzzling, deceitful, inaccurate

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English Thesaurus: untrue, false, something is not the case, misleading, trumped-up, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

mis‧lead‧ing /mɪsˈliːdɪŋ/ adjective
likely to make someone believe something that is not true:
The article was misleading, and the newspaper has apologized.
seriously/highly/grossly etc misleading
These figures are highly misleading.
—misleadingly adverb:
The diagrams are misleadingly simple.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

misleading
adj.
VERBS appear, be
ADV. extremely, grossly, highly, positively, profoundly, seriously, very | completely, entirely, totally, wholly | a bit, a little, quite, rather, slightly, somewhat | potentially | deliberately Her statement was deliberately misleading.
dangerously Some of the information was dangerously misleading.
PREP. about The brochure was extremely misleading about the cost of the holiday.

[TahlilGaran] Collocations Dictionary ▲

untrue [not usually before noun] not true, because the person does not know the facts, or because they are lying:
It is untrue that the college broke the terms of the contract.
The allegations are completely untrue.
false not true and not based on the facts, or not the real one:
The article gives a totally false impression of life in Russia today.
He gave a false name and address to the police.
Decide whether these statements are true or false.
something is not the case if what someone says or believes is happening is not the case, it is not happening and what they say or believe is not true:
Recent reports suggest that violent crime is increasing, but this is simply not the case.
People think there’s an endless supply of fish, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
misleading a misleading statement or piece of information makes people believe something that is not true, especially because it does not give all the facts:
The holiday brochure is deliberately misleading, because the hotels it shows are not the ones you actually stay in.
These statistics give a misleading impression of what is happening to the economy.
trumped-up trumped-up charges, accusations, evidence etc use information that is not true in order to make someone seem guilty of doing something wrong:
He had been arrested by the secret police on trumped-up charges of spying.
Zola believed that the case against Dreyfus was trumped-up and utterly false.
myth something a lot of people believe because they want to believe it, not because it is based on fact:
The first myth about motherhood is that new mothers instantly fall in love with their babies.
Contrary to popular myth, our streets are much safer now than they were 100 years ago.
illusion a belief or idea that is false, especially a belief in something good about yourself or about the situation you are in:
Alcohol gives people the illusion of being witty and confident.
People bought the land under the illusion that the value would increase.
misconception an idea that is not true but which people believe because they do not have all the facts, or they have not properly understood the situation:
It’s a common misconception that vaccinations given in childhood last for life.
Employers seem to share the general misconception that young people are more efficient than older workers.
delusion a completely mistaken idea, which affects your behaviour and what you decide to do:
He began to suffer from paranoid delusions.
Many people labour under the delusion (=have the delusion) that anything which says ‘natural ingredients’ on the label must be harmless.
the delusion that women control most of the world' s wealth and power
fallacy if you say that something is a fallacy, you mean that it is completely wrong to believe that it is true:
The idea that a good night’s sleep will cure everything is a complete fallacy.
It’s a fallacy that all fat people are fat simply because they eat too much.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲

wrong not correct or right – used about facts, answers etc, or people:
For every wrong answer, you lose five points.
The figure he gave me was wrong.
I think you’re wrong about that.
incorrect something that is incorrect is wrong because someone has made a mistake. Incorrect is more formal than wrong:
I’m afraid these prices are incorrect.
The doctor had made an incorrect diagnosis.
inaccurate something that is inaccurate is not exactly right and contains mistakes:
inaccurate information
inaccurate measurements
The old maps were often inaccurate.
false not based on true facts:
Are the following statements true or false?
He was accused of giving false information to the police.
untrue [not usually before noun] not based on true facts, especially because someone is lying or guessing:
I can’t believe he said that about me. It’s completely untrue!
The allegations were untrue.
misleading a misleading statement or piece of information makes people believe something that is wrong, especially because it does not give all the facts:
The article was very misleading.
misleading statistics
misguided a misguided decision, belief, action etc is wrong because it is based on bad judgement or understanding:
That decision seems misguided now.
It was the consequence of a misguided economic policy.
mistaken wrong – used about ideas and beliefs. Also used about a person being wrong. You’re mistaken sounds more polite and less direct than saying you’re wrong:
She’s completely mistaken if she thinks that I don’t care about her.
a mistaken belief
go badly/seriously wrong
The book is a thriller about a diamond robbery that goes badly wrong.
go horribly/terribly wrong
From that moment on, everything went horribly wrong for the team.
go disastrously wrong
Help was close at hand in case the stunt went disastrously wrong.
go tragically wrong (=so that death or serious injury results)
A father and son died in a fire after a good deed for a friend went tragically wrong.
things go wrong
If things go wrong, they’ll blame me.
something/nothing/everything goes wrong
If something goes wrong with your machine, you can take it back to the dealer.
you can’t go wrong (=you cannot make a mistake)
Turn right and then right again--you really can’t go wrong.
if anything can go wrong, it will
I’m sure that if anything can go wrong, it will.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲