perfidious
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perfidious
Malicious or deceitful in a treacherous, insidious, and vile way. It describes an action or plan that aims to abuse trust and deliberately cause harm.
Es war ein perfider Plan, ihre Freundschaft nur vorzutäuschen, um an die vertraulichen Informationen zu gelangen.
It was a perfidious plan to merely pretend to be her friend in order to get the confidential information.
'Perfide' (perfidious) is a strong and elevated word that is mainly used in written language, for example in newspapers or literature. In everyday conversation, it sounds very formal.
Der Artikel deckte die perfiden Machenschaften des Konzerns auf.
The article exposed the company's perfidious schemes.
The adjective often describes abstract nouns that involve evil intent or deception. Common combinations are 'ein perfider Plan' (a perfidious plan), 'eine perfide Lüge' (a perfidious lie), 'eine perfide Methode' (a perfidious method), or 'ein perfider Angriff' (a perfidious attack).
Mit einer perfiden Lüge versuchte er, seinen Konkurrenten zu schaden.
With a perfidious lie, he tried to harm his competitors.
'Perfide' (perfidiously) can also be used as an adverb to describe an action. It then remains unchanged and refers to the verb.
Der Betrüger ging äußerst perfide vor.
The fraudster proceeded in an extremely perfidious way.
honest
'ehrlich' and 'perfide' are strong opposites when it comes to behavior or intentions. 'ehrlich' means open, truthful, and without deception. 'perfide', by contrast, describes especially treacherous and malicious behavior in which someone exploits trust and deliberately causes harm. 'perfide' is much stronger and more negative than simply 'unehrlich' (dishonest). It is more likely to be used for plans, tricks, or actions that seem especially mean.
Der perfide Plan nutzte die Angst der Menschen aus.
The perfidious plan exploited people's fear.
Nach der Arbeit gab mein Nachbar ehrlich zu, dass er den Fehler gemacht hatte.
After work, my neighbor honestly admitted that he had made the mistake.