falsehood

1 a false idea or belief <the possibility of a perpetual motion machine is one falsehood that has been disproved by modern physics> Synonyms delusion, error, fallacy, falsity, hallucination, illusion, misbelief, misconception, myth, old wives' tale, untruthRelated Words factoid; superstition; fiction, pretense (or pretence); distortion, inaccuracy, misapprehension, miscomprehension, misinterpretation, misjudgment, misperception, misunderstanding; misinformation, misknowledge, misreport, misrepresentation, misstatement; sophism, sophistry; fib, half-truth, lie, story, taleAntonyms truth, verity

2 a statement known by its maker to be untrue and made in order to deceive <several falsehoods in the witness's testimony that may be grounds for perjury> Synonyms fable, fabrication, fairy tale, lie, falsity, fib, mendacity, prevarication, story, tale, taradiddle (or tarradiddle), untruth, whopperRelated Words distortion, exaggeration, half-truth; ambiguity, equivocation, obliquity; defamation, libel, slander; perjury; bluff, fiction, pose, pretense (or pretence); humbug, jive, nonsense; canard, fallacy, misconception, myth; falsification, misinformation, misreport, misrepresentation, misstatement; deceit, deceitfulness, dishonesty, duplicity, fraudulenceNear Antonyms fact, truism, verity; honesty, truthfulness, veracity; authentication, confirmation, substantiation, validation, verificationAntonyms truth

3 the quality or state of being false <scientists eventually demonstrated the falsehood of the claim that prehistoric fish did not evolve lungs and legs> Synonyms erroneousness, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, falsity, untruthRelated Words speciousness, spuriousness; deception, deceptiveness, delusion; inaccuracy, incorrectness; dishonesty, mendaciousness, mendacity, untruthfulnessNear Antonyms accuracy, actuality, correctness, factuality, factualness, genuineness; credibility, honesty, trustworthiness, truthfulness, veracityAntonyms truth, verity

4 the tendency to tell lies <a cynic who believes that politics are a veritable fount of falsehood> Synonyms deceit, deceitfulness, dishonesty, mendaciousness, mendacity, untruthfulnessRelated Words artifice, craft, craftiness, crookedness, cunning, dissembling, dissimulation, double-dealing, duplicity, fakery, foxiness, guile, guilefulness, insincerity, trickishness, wiliness; falseness; hypocrisyNear Antonyms honor, incorruptibility; candidness, candor, frankness, good faith, plainspokenness, sincerity, straightforwardness; dependability, reliability, reliableness, trustworthiness; accuracy, objectivity; authenticity, correctness, genuineness; credibilityAntonyms honesty, integrity, probity, truthfulness, veraciousness, veracity, verity