falsehood
Americannoun
-
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
-
Obsolete. deception.
noun
-
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.
“Fiction is fiction. Falsehood, pretending to be true, and citing fabricated sources to prove and to persuade, is something else,” she said.
From New York Times • Mar. 18, 2023
That's the thesis of a recent paper called "The Evolutionary Psychology of Conflict and the Functions of Falsehood" by the Danish political scientists Michael Bang Petersen and Mathias Osmundsen and American anthropologist John Tooby.
From Salon • Aug. 8, 2021
Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.
From Washington Post • Feb. 9, 2018
Instead, they could do worse than to look at an unloved old play called "Double Falsehood; or The Distressed Lovers."
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2016
The contrast is not really between Morality and Religion, but between Morality and Immorality, Falsehood, Fraud, and Wilful Imposition.
From Modern Substitutes for Christianity by Muir, Pearson McAdam
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.
