falsify
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to make false or incorrect, especially so as to deceive.
to falsify income-tax reports.
-
to alter fraudulently.
-
to represent falsely.
He falsified the history of his family to conceal his humble origins.
-
to show or prove to be false; disprove.
to falsify a theory.
- Synonyms:
- controvert, confute, refute, discredit, rebut
verb (used without object)
verb
-
to make (a report, evidence, accounts, etc) false or inaccurate by alteration, esp in order to deceive
-
to prove false; disprove
Synonym Usage
See misrepresent.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
falsifysimple
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falsifiessimple
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have falsifiedperfect
-
has falsifiedperfect
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am falsifyingprogressive
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are falsifyingprogressive
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is falsifyingprogressive
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have been falsifyingperfect progressive
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has been falsifyingperfect progressive
Past
-
falsifiedsimple
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had falsifiedperfect
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was falsifyingprogressive
-
were falsifyingprogressive
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had been falsifyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of falsify
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English falsifien, from Middle French falsifier, from Late Latin falsificāre; see origin at false, -ify
Explanation
To falsify is to alter or mangle something, like a message or document, in a way that distorts the meaning. Since false things aren't true, to falsify something is to dishonestly change its meaning. If a friend tells you a story, and then you retell the story but change important facts, you falsified the story. If you lie in court — commit perjury — you're falsifying the facts. Faking someone else's signature is another type of falsifying, as is lying on your resume. Anytime you misrepresent the truth, you're falsifying.
Vocabulary lists containing falsify
A Long Way from Chicago
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Salt to the Sea
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Unit 2: Vocabulary from Readings 1
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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:
Some workers interviewed by the FBI said they falsified the forms to make themselves look more productive, but the documents don’t include evidence anyone was specifically paid to falsify applications.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday said that it was "intolerable" that the revision books for the French school leavers' exam, the baccalaureat, "falsify the facts" about the "terrorist and antisemitic attacks by Hamas".
From Barron's ● Jan. 16, 2026
So he allegedly coordinated with AlHusseini to falsify financial records and inflate AlHusseini’s worth by tens of millions of dollars.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 14, 2025
A High Court judge, while approving the out-of-court settlement, said: "The matter was compounded by a concerted attempt on behalf of the police officers involved to falsify their account of events."
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2025
It makes predictions and claims that are almost impossible to falsify since an alternative formulation consistent with what happened is always easy to dream up.
From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos
It falsifies not just Black history but American history.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 2, 2023
Treasury has said that anyone who falsifies documentation or otherwise hides the true origin or price of Russian oil would face consequences under the domestic law of jurisdictions implementing the price cap.
From Reuters ● Sep. 20, 2022
Veteran rancher John Landsburg faces federal bureaucracy when his old enemy, Tap Peterson, falsifies documents and alleges that Landsburg doesn’t own his family ranch.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2020
Brigham Young falsifies its past to make this rule seem “natural.”
From Salon ● May 31, 2012
The comic accident falsifies the nature before us, starts a wrong analogy in the mind, a suggestion that cannot be carried out.
From The Sense of Beauty Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory by Santayana, George
Prosecutors say he falsified title insurance policies that showed the bank would have a first lien on the underlying collateral if the loan went bad, when in fact it did not.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
According to a 2022 FTC complaint, one operation involving online retail allegedly promised “passive income on autopilot” and deployed falsified consumer reviews.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
When the public hears about scientific fraud, the focus often falls on isolated cases involving falsified data, plagiarism or retracted studies.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 7, 2026
But the ARCs used by Zamora Yrala were falsified, the court heard.
From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2026
The ostensible reason was that the numbers were easily changed and falsified.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
So far, the head of the institute has said the only reasons to strip fellows of their titles is if they’ve conducted scientific misconduct, things like falsifying data, Twelvetrees said.
From Salon ● Feb. 24, 2026
But according to the indictment, he paid himself above-market rate to “rent” properties he already owned, falsifying records to show he’d paid market rate to made-up landlords in order to house his clients.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 23, 2026
The prosecution argued that falsifying flight records was rampant across the industry and Wright was worried his involvement in this practice would be blamed for the crash.
From BBC ● Dec. 12, 2025
The defendants engaged in a "deliberate and deceptive effort to transship controlled Nvidia GPUs to China by falsifying paperwork, creating fake contracts, and misleading US authorities," Assistant Attorney General John Eisenberg said in a statement.
From Barron's ● Nov. 20, 2025
The immediate advantages of falsifying the past were obvious, but the ultimate motive was mysterious.
From "1984" by George Orwell
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.
