liar
Americannoun
-
liars
plural
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.
See Examples For:
Clearly she was either a flake or a liar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 12, 2026
Refrain from calling her a pathological liar, even if just to yourself, as that will color your response to her.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
In an interview with The Times earlier this month, Arday admitted making academic "mistakes" but said he was being wrongly "portrayed to be a liar and a fantasist".
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
The officers also suggested in the D.A.’s motion Flores was a habitual liar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
But her knees knocked together, as if even her own body was calling her a liar.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
I do think she’s calling the supermajority liars.
From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026
“Their entire case is built on murderer’s row — a bunch of liars just trying to get out of jail,” Tedford said.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 28, 2026
Ms. Adelman describes how Lewis’s specimens fell into the hands of a series of botanists—some of them charlatans, drunkards, liars or thieves—who squandered his legacy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
Navy attack on an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boat, and almost certain liars for their accounts of the incident.
From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025
We’ re hypocrites and liars — And we all get fed.
From "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
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.
