falsehood
Americannoun
-
falsehoods
plural
-
a false statement; lie.
- Synonyms:
- story, fiction, invention, canard, falsification, prevarication, fabrication
-
something false; an untrue idea, belief, etc..
The Nazis propagated the falsehood of racial superiority.
-
the act of lying or making false statements.
-
lack of conformity to truth or fact.
- Synonyms:
- mendacity, inveracity, untruthfulness
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Obsolete. deception.
noun
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the quality of being untrue
-
an untrue statement; lie
-
the act of deceiving or lying
Synonym Usage
Falsehood, fib, lie, untruth refer to something untrue or incorrect. A falsehood is a statement that distorts or suppresses the truth, in order to deceive: to tell a falsehood about one's ancestry in order to gain acceptance. A fib denotes a trivial falsehood, and is often used to characterize that which is not strictly true: a polite fib. A lie is a vicious falsehood: to tell a lie about one's neighbor. An untruth is an incorrect statement, either intentionally misleading (less harsh, however, than falsehood or lie) or arising from misunderstanding or ignorance: I'm afraid you are telling an untruth.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of falsehood
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English falsehead, falshede; see origin at false, -hood
Explanation
A falsehood is a lie. If your mom has an uncanny knack for knowing when you're telling a falsehood, it means she always knows when you're stretching the truth. The noun falsehood is a slightly fancy or old-fashioned way of saying "lie." It's hard to ever completely trust a friend again once he's told you a falsehood, although sometimes people tell small falsehoods simply to make others feel better. Telling your aunt her pink hair looks fine is a small falsehood, while lying about your grades on a college application is a pretty big falsehood. The Latin root is falsus, "deceived or erroneous."
Vocabulary lists containing falsehood
A Web of Lies
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We Were Liars
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The Misfits
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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:
Seoul later demanded Ukraine apologise for "announcing a falsehood" and said its actions had seriously damaged trust between the two nations.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Rather than respond to every claim, Logan says his office picks its battles, intervening only when a falsehood appears likely to reach a wide audience.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
For example, lying isn’t merely uttering a falsehood.
From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2026
Iran's Revolutionary Guards also said that no US Navy vessel has "dared" approach the Strait of Hormuz, calling Wright's claim a "pure falsehood."
From Barron's ● Mar. 10, 2026
No smoke yet showed above the rooftops, so, reassured, all the faces turned back to Capricorn, who was saying something about deceit and falsehood, discipline and negligence, but Elinor only half heard him.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
The speech was strewn with falsehoods that must have appalled even sympathetic listeners in the chamber.
From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026
Generative AI systems are known for their ability to "hallucinate" and assert falsehoods as fact, even sometimes invent sources for inaccurate information.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Frances Stonor Saunders’s “The Cultural Cold War” moves beyond outright falsehoods and forgeries to reveal how the Central Intelligence Agency secretly supported a wide-ranging collection of artists and intellectuals between 1947 and 1967.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 12, 2026
Knowing someone — or of someone — who is gay or lesbian has long tended to dispel falsehoods and quell fears that might exist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 7, 2026
That Paul Marshall, Lola Quincey and she, Briony Tallis, had conspired with silence and falsehoods to send an innocent man to jail?
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
