Purposefully guiding someone's attention or actions in the wrong way; tricking someone by making them look at the wrong thing.
Prefix 'mis-' (wrong) combined with 'direction' from Latin 'directio' (straight course). Used in magic since the late 1800s to describe how magicians draw attention away from the trick.
Magicians literally built an entire art form around misdirection—while your eyes follow the flashy hand, the real trick happens elsewhere. It's why politicians, advertisers, and sleight-of-hand experts all use this technique!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.