hoax vs ruse

hoax

noun
  • Anything deliberately intended to deceive or trick. 

verb
  • To deceive (someone) by making them believe something that has been maliciously or mischievously fabricated. 

ruse

noun
  • An action intended to deceive; a trick. 

  • Cunning, guile, trickery. 

verb
  • To deceive or trick using a ruse. 

How often have the words hoax and ruse occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )