mendacity

noun

men·​dac·​i·​ty men-ˈda-sə-tē 

plural mendacities

1

: the quality or state of being mendacious

… to blow the whistle on mendacity and hypocrisy.

—Geoffrey Wolff

2

: lie

mendacities of the singer's manager

Synonyms of mendacity

• lie
• tale
• story

Examples of mendacity in a Sentence

highly fictionalized “memoirs” in which the facts were few and the mendacities many

you need to overcome this deplorable mendacity, or no one will ever believe anything you say

Recent Examples on the Web

The answer from liberal institutions revealed to be complicit in large-scale violence and mendacity should still be a firm no. —Sean Williams, Harpers Magazine, 27 Jan. 2026

But the high-water mark of Mr. Trump’s mendacity was his ponderous assertion that Maduro’s removal was necessary because his election was plagued by voter fraud and illegitimacy. —Bruce Fein, Baltimore Sun, 4 Jan. 2026

But widespread disgust with the mayor’s mendacity and the connivance of eight City Council members is changing the political landscape. —U T Readers, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Dec. 2025

Viewed from an especially merciless or purgatorial angle, certain strands of my life are little more than histories of lo-fi mendacity. —James Parker, The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1540, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for mendacity

• audacity
• capacity
• loquacity
• opacity
• pugnacity
• rapacity
• sagacity
• tenacity
• veracity
• vivacity
• voracity
• incapacity