đa trá
Definition
- Adjective:
- Deceitful; duplicitous: Characterized by or given to deliberate deception, trickery, or dishonesty. It describes a person or their actions as being insincere and untrustworthy.
- Fallacious; misleading: Involving or based on a false idea or belief; intended to deceive.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Lời nói đa trá của hắn không thể che giấu sự thật. (His deceitful words cannot hide the truth.)
- Đó là một lời hứa đa trá. (That was a duplicitous promise.)
- Hãy coi chừng những kẻ đa trá. (Beware of deceitful people.)
Advanced Usage
- This term is considered literary and somewhat rare in modern everyday Vietnamese. It is more likely to be encountered in formal writing, classical literature, or in contexts describing profound moral flaws.
Variants and Related Words
- Dối trá (adj): deceitful, false. This is a more common synonym.
- Hành động dối trá đó đã bị phát hiện. (That deceitful action has been discovered.)
Synonyms
- Deceitful: Guilty of or involving deception.
- Duplicitous: Deceitful in speech or conduct.
- Two-faced: Insincere and deceitful.
- Fallacious: Based on a mistaken belief.
Related Idioms
- Khẩu Phật tâm xà: Literally "mouth of Buddha, heart of a snake"; meaning hypocritical and deceitful. This idiom conveys a similar idea of deep duplicity as "đa trá".
- Kẻ đó khẩu Phật tâm xà, đừng nên tin. (That person is hypocritical and deceitful; you shouldn't believe them.)