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.
See Examples For:
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
"Anyone with a big social media following has a potential profit-taking opportunity if they spread the right falsehood at the right time."
From Barron's ● Jun. 13, 2026
British policy toward China, Lord Patten continued, had rested on a "falsehood" that "in order to do business with them, we must avoid saying anything they don't like or doing anything that they don't like".
From BBC ● Jan. 26, 2026
Aurinia and its U.S. subsidiary brought the suit against Tidmarsh, alleging defamation and injurious falsehood, and seeking damages for its losses, plus punitive damages.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2025
As with two previous confessions, this one was a mixture of truth and falsehood.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
Her attempts at dialogue met with platitudes and obvious falsehoods.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 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
In the age of AI, authentic high-resolution satellite imagery collected in real time can give decision-makers vital clues to assess security threats and debunk falsehoods from unverified sources.
From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026
AI programmes have vastly simplified tasks in the workplace but generative AI systems are known for their ability to "hallucinate" and assert falsehoods as fact, even sometimes inventing sources for the inaccurate information.
From BBC ● Mar. 3, 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
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.
