mendacity
[men-das-i-tee]
- the quality of being mendacious; untruthfulness; tendency to lie.
- an instance of lying; falsehood.
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Origin of mendacity
1640–50; < Late Latin mendācitās falsehood, equivalent to Latin mendāci- (stem of mendāx) given to lying, false + -tās -ty2
Synonyms
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for mendacity
Contemporary Examples
Besides the mendacity of it all, such a scheme misses the obvious truth that “the audience has a mind of its own.”
Within this maelstrom of mendacity lies an urgent film that dares to convey the black experience in America: Dear White People.
‘Dear White People’: How An Ex-Publicist’s Twitter Became One of the Year’s Most Important FilmsMarlow Stern
October 30, 2014
The destruction of a for-profit enterprise is always noble; its defense always carries the whiff of mendacity.
His new book, The Mendacity of Hope, argues that Obama has betrayed liberalism and the Constitution.
Roger D. Hodge is the author of The Mendacity of Hope: Barack Obama and the Betrayal of American Liberalism.
Historical Examples
That, and his career of mendacity, would start at breakfast.
The Cosmic ComputerHenry Beam Piper
And Harry had the mendacity to assure her that this was a favorite habit of mine.
Lorimer of the NorthwestHarold Bindloss
Because Falsehood was blemished in having no feet, she was called mendacium or mendacity.
The Fables of PhdrusPhaedrus
The yellow-press surpassed themselves in clamor and mendacity.
Theodore RooseveltEdmund Lester Pearson
This concluding paragraph is simply a tissue of mendacity and absurdity.
Ti-Ping Tien-KwohLin-Le
mendacity
- the tendency to be untruthful
- a falsehood
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Word Origin
C17: from Late Latin mendācitās, from Latin mendāx untruthful
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for mendacity
n.
"tendency to lie," 1640s, from Middle French mendacité and directly from Late Latin mendacitas "falsehood, mendacity," from Latin mendax "lying; a liar" (see mendacious).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper