1
as in deceptive
given to or marked by cheating and deception
the commercial is a part of an underhanded PR campaign to whitewash the company's environmental record
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in clandestine
undertaken or done so as to escape being observed or known by others
an underhanded attempt at infiltrating the other party's headquarters
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in underhand
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of underhanded
Daniel Brown, The Athletic, 19 July 2024
This act, designed to build intrigue for their WrestleMania match, portrayed Cena as underhanded.
—Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Apr. 2025
This one was with the left hand, too, an underhanded prayer over the reach of Texas A&M’s Solomon Washington.
—Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 22 Mar. 2025
If the other AGIs take the bait, the insidious AGI stands tall as the best, assuming nobody finds out the underhanded gambit at play.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for underhanded
Adjective
Barry famously shot his free throws underhanded, too, so this was kind of his comfort zone.
—Daniel Brown, The Athletic, 19 July 2024
This act, designed to build intrigue for their WrestleMania match, portrayed Cena as underhanded.
—Newsweek Staff, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Apr. 2025
This one was with the left hand, too, an underhanded prayer over the reach of Texas A&M’s Solomon Washington.
—Bennett Durando, The Denver Post, 22 Mar. 2025
If the other AGIs take the bait, the insidious AGI stands tall as the best, assuming nobody finds out the underhanded gambit at play.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes, 21 Mar. 2025
See All Example Sentences for underhanded
Recent Examples of Synonyms for underhanded
Adjective
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Last year, the Biden administration's Transportation Department opened an inquiry ordering American, Delta Air Lines, Southwest and United to provide records and submit reports to ensure consumers do not face unfair, deceptive, or anticompetitive practices.—
David Shepardson,
USA Today,
3 June 2025
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The quest to build human-level AI agents using techniques known to produce deceptive tendencies, Bengio says, is comparable to a car speeding down a narrow mountain road, with steep cliffs on either side, and thick fog obscuring the path ahead.—
Harry Booth,
Time,
3 June 2025
Adjective
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Syria under Assad is believed to have operated an extensive clandestine nuclear program, which included an undeclared nuclear reactor built by North Korea in eastern Deir el-Zour province.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
5 June 2025
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The only way to pre-empt detection by these IAEA watchdogs would be for Ukraine to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and expel the atomic inspectors, but those moves would amount to trumpeting Kyiv’s clandestine quest to develop a nuclear warhead.—
Kevin Holden Platt,
Forbes.com,
1 June 2025
Adverb
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Each team will alternate tossing the bean bag underhand onto the board until all four bean bags are thrown.—
Anthony Gharib,
USA TODAY,
13 June 2023
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Pitchers tossed underhand and no one wore gloves yet, resulting in smarting pain in the hands of catchers and first basemen.—
Jeff Suess,
The Enquirer,
29 Mar. 2023
Adjective
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If someone submits a fraudulent claim, instead of losing insurance, their personal trust score would be lowered, which would impact insurance costs.—
Robert Clark,
Forbes.com,
12 June 2025
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That’s where hundreds of thousands of Wells Fargo employees opened millions of unauthorized or fraudulent accounts and other financial products, from 2002 to 2016, to meet excessive sales goals.—
Catherine Muccigrosso,
Charlotte Observer,
5 June 2025
Adjective
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Markowski recommends reducing shady, humid areas where the insects hide from the heat, including ornamental grasses, dense shrubs, carports and rocks near ponds.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
8 June 2025
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Give your dad the gift of peace of mind with a data removal service that scrubs his personal details from people-search sites and shady data brokers.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
8 June 2025
Adjective
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Russia's latest barrages followed last weekend's covert Ukrainian operation in which agents used more than 100 drones concealed in large trucks to attack strategic bomber bases deep inside Russia.—
David Brennan,
ABC News,
8 June 2025
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Russia’s attacks on Friday come two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to retaliate against Ukraine for its highly successful Operation Spider’s Web covert strike on Russia on June 1.—
Christopher Tremoglie,
The Washington Examiner,
6 June 2025
Adjective
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Throughout the film, newspaper headlines and snippets of TV contextualize the story against the backdrop of anti-Vietnam demonstrations, colleges retaliating to student campus protests and aggressive policing, along with glimpses of Richard Nixon’s crooked grin.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
23 May 2025
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The moon's insides are crooked thanks to the near side being some 306 degrees Fahrenheit hotter at depth than its counterpart on the lunar far side.—
Ian Randall,
MSNBC Newsweek,
14 May 2025
Adjective
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So is this mystery novel secretly the story of The Gilded Age and is this an undercover crossover?—
Nick Romano,
EW.com,
6 June 2025
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The missing money controlled by Velazquez was supposed to go toward undercover narcotics operations.—
Charles Rabin,
Miami Herald,
4 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Underhanded.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/underhanded. Accessed 17 Jun. 2025.
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