big lie

noun

1. a false statement of outrageous magnitude employed as a propaganda measure in the belief that a lesser falsehood would not be credible.

Word History and Origins

Origin of big lie¹

First recorded in 1945–50

Example Sentences

“They promulgated the ‘Big Lie,’” Dodd said of Fox News’ post-2020 election coverage.

From Los Angeles Times

"He was literally helping to liberate my mind from those mental chains of self-doubt, of believing the big lie about your inferiority and the fact that you're doomed to repeat the work of your parents as a drudge," he said.

From BBC

The Bush administration’s false pretext for so-called preemptive war against Iraq was thoroughly in the tradition of Joseph Goebbels’ Big Lie or George Orwell’s Newspeak.

From Salon

You’re waiting for that to be a big lie, but it’s not.

From Los Angeles Times

He considered that a priority because he saw their prosecution as a direct attack on the Big Lie that he had actually won the 2020 election.

From Salon