liar
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of liar
before 950; Middle English lier, Old English lēogere. See lie 1, -ar 1
Explanation
A liar is someone who doesn't tell the truth. A liar tells lies. "Liar, liar, pants on fire," a phrase of unknown origin, is a children's jump-rope rhyme also used as a playground taunt. Adults, and especially political commentators, have also been known to use the phrase or part of it as a particularly demeaning insult aimed at politicians who make outrageous claims that can't possibly be true. Notice that liar ends in -ar, not -er, as you might expect.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The 24-year-old, whose hits include Illegal, Stateside and Boy's A Liar, is the first woman to be given the prize since its inception in 1977.
From BBC • Feb. 23, 2026
Carolina Liar collaborated with Martin on two albums, yielding songs that appeared in popular shows like “The Hills” and “One Tree Hill.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 2, 2025
In the song "Liar," the Sex Pistols accuse individuals of evasion and falsehood.
From Salon • Jan. 30, 2024
"I didn't expect it to be my biggest song," PinkPantheress said of Boy's A Liar.
From BBC • Dec. 29, 2023
What he’d just said is another one of Bud Caldwell’s Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
From "Bud, Not Buddy" by Christopher Paul Curtis
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
