mendacious
[men-dey-shuh s]
- telling lies, especially habitually; dishonest; lying; untruthful: a mendacious person.
- false or untrue: a mendacious report.
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Origin of mendacious
Antonyms
1, 2. veracious.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for mendacious
Contemporary Examples
They created well-intentioned rules—which most mendacious lobbyists have found a way to ignore legally.
Ross Douthat wrote in The New York Times that the media coverage of the bill was “mendacious” and “hysterical.”
Why call his speech before the United Nations “defamatory and venomous… full of mendacious propaganda?”
Erdogan's description of Israeli behavior toward the Palestinians as "genocidal" is mendacious and inflammatory.
But too few Democrats—and almost no media commentators—have countered the mendacious right-wing storyline.
Historical Examples
Party journalism in the Province of Quebec is peculiarly bitter and mendacious.
The Hunted OutlawAnonymous
Bein' a woman, you're too feeble-witted for reason, too mendacious for trooth.'
Faro Nell and Her FriendsAlfred Henry Lewis
With this mendacious explanation Gustavus was forced to be content.
The Swedish Revolution Under Gustavus VasaPaul Barron Watson
The mendacious fiction was framed by the chief priests and elders of the people.
Jesus the ChristJames Edward Talmage
Angie said suddenly and turned with a mendacious inspiration on her brother.
The Fifth AceDouglas Grant
Word Origin and History for mendacious
adj.
1610s, from Middle French mendacieux, from Latin mendacium "a lie, untruth, falsehood, fiction," from mendax (genitive mendacis) "lying, deceitful," from menda "fault, defect, carelessness in writing," from PIE root *mend- "physical defect, fault" (see amend (v.)). The sense evolution of Latin mendax was influenced by mentiri "to speak falsely, lie, deceive." Related: Mendaciously; mendaciousness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper