hypocrite
n.someone who says they have certain beliefs or high standards, but then acts in a way that goes against them. You use this when a person tells others how to behave but does not follow their own advice.
n.a person who professes to have certain beliefs, virtues, or principles that their own behaviour does not follow. Often carries a strong pejorative connotation regarding moral inconsistency.
“He is a hypocrite for telling us to save water while he wastes it.”
“The politician was called a hypocrite after he was caught breaking the very lockdown rules he had helped to create.”
“In literature, the hypocrite is often used as a foil to the earnest protagonist, highlighting the gap between public performance and private morality within a rigid social structure.”
Commonly used with the verb 'to be' or 'to call someone a'.
Learners often use the noun as an adjective; use 'hypocrite' for the person and 'hypocritical' for the behaviour.
From Old French ypocrite (Modern French hypocrite), from Latin hypocrita, from Ancient Greek ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs, “actor, hypocrite”), from ὑποκρίνομαι (hupokrínomai, “I answer, act, feign”). Displaced native Old English līċettere.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.