student asking question

What's the difference between "Deceive" and "Trick"?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

To "deceive" someone means to mislead them on purpose with evil or malicious intent. To "trick" on the other hand usually means to mislead someone but usually as a joke without evil or cruel intent. So "deceive" is generally a bit more malicious and cruel than "trick". Ex: He had been deceiving us all for years by lying about his drug use. Ex: She tricked me! I really thought she sold my car but she was just kidding.

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