Nearby Words

falsehood

[fawls-hood] Origin

false·hood

[fawls-hood]
noun
1.
a false statement; lie.
2.
something false; an untrue idea, belief, etc.: The Nazis propagated the falsehood of racial superiority.
3.
the act of lying or making false statements.
4.
lack of conformity to truth or fact.
5.
Obsolete. deception.

Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English falshede. See false, -hood


1. 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. 3. untruthfulness, inveracity, mendacity.

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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Falsehood is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
Collins
World English Dictionary
falsehood (ˈfɔːlsˌhʊd)
 
n
1.  the quality of being untrue
2.  an untrue statement; lie
3.  the act of deceiving or lying

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

falsehood
late 13c., "deceitfulness," also "a lie," from false + -hood.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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