liar
Americannoun
-
liars
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of liar
before 950; Middle English lier, Old English lēogere. See lie 1, -ar 1
Explanation
A liar is someone who doesn't tell the truth. A liar tells lies. "Liar, liar, pants on fire," a phrase of unknown origin, is a children's jump-rope rhyme also used as a playground taunt. Adults, and especially political commentators, have also been known to use the phrase or part of it as a particularly demeaning insult aimed at politicians who make outrageous claims that can't possibly be true. Notice that liar ends in -ar, not -er, as you might expect.
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:
So you’re not only rude, you’re also a liar.
From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2026
He urged the panel, before they decided their guilty verdict, to discredit his client as a liar who told tales to sell books and make money.
From BBC ● Sep. 1, 2026
I want to send the message that she’d better keep my name out of her mouth because I do think she is a pathological liar.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 29, 2026
The officers also suggested in the D.A.’s motion Flores was a habitual liar.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
Why even bother trying the first time if everyone was going to call him a liar later?
From "The Very, Very Far North" by Dan Bar-el
She is therefore one of the century’s most infamous liars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
I do think she’s calling the supermajority liars.
From Slate ● Jun. 3, 2026
Navy attack on an alleged Venezuelan drug-smuggling boat, and almost certain liars for their accounts of the incident.
From Salon ● Dec. 20, 2025
“People, unfortunately, have turned into thieves, liars and cheaters, and I don’t know what’s happened to the world, but we’ve lost our way to be kind.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025
"The way I look at it, there's nothing wrong with making things. Or selling things you make. Right? I made up a story and sold it. You think storytellers are liars?"
From "Born Behind Bars" by Padma Venkatraman
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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.
