The Collaborative International Dictionary
duplicity \du*plic"i*ty\, n.; pl. duplicities. [F. duplicit['e], L. duplicitas, fr. duplex double. See Duplex.]
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Doubleness; a twofold state. [Archaic]
Do not affect duplicities nor triplicities, nor any certain number of parts in your division of things.
--I. Watts. -
Doubleness of heart or speech; insincerity; a sustained form of deception which consists in entertaining or pretending to entertain one set of feelings, and acting as if influenced by another; bad faith.
Far from the duplicity wickedly charged on him, he acted his part with alacrity and resolution.
--Burke. -
(Law)
The use of two or more distinct allegations or answers, where one is sufficient.
--Blackstone.-
In indictments, the union of two incompatible offenses.
--Wharton.Syn: Double dealing; dissimulation; deceit; guile; deception; falsehood.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of duplicity English)
Usage examples of "duplicities".
And France recounted with her comic smile Duplicities of Court and Cabinet, The silky female of his male in guile, Wherewith her two-faced Master could amuse A dupe he charmed in sunny beams to bask, Before his feint for camisado struck The lightning moment of the cast-off mask.
These people were all spies and counter-spies and whatever, and this was their devious little game of duplicities and counter-duplicities.
If a British Naval officer schooled in Nelsonian duplicities could ever be said to look shifty, Jensen looked shifty now.