The act or quality of deceiving; deception or the process of misleading someone.
From deceive (Latin decipere, to catch or ensnare) plus the suffix -ance/-ence (indicating action or state). It's a more formal way to say 'deception.'
This noun is archaic and formal—you might encounter it in old legal documents or Renaissance literature, where it sounds more sophisticated than simply saying 'lying' or 'tricking.'
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