Un père découvre les notes de son enfant

Does “décevoir” mean “to deceive” in French?

Décevoir means to disappoint, and déçu means disappointed — not deceived. Je suis très déçu de toi is “I’m very disappointed in you,” a parent’s line, not an accusation of lying. For actual deception French reaches for tromper. The noun follows the same rule: une déception is a letdown, and une grosse déception is a big disappointment.

Both words descend from Latin decipere, which carried the trickery and the letdown at once. English kept the trickery in “deceive”; French drifted to the letdown. A useful split to remember: décevoir is about broken expectations, tromper about broken trust.