as in libel
law
the crime of telling a lie in a court of law after promising to tell the truth
He was found guilty of perjury.
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Recent Examples of perjury
The 14 defendants face charges of conspiracy, filing false sales tax returns, failing to file tax returns, perjury and money laundering.
—
Lucy Hodgman, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Mar. 2026
Penton faces an additional charge of perjury for allegedly lying to the grand jury.
—Aaron Curtis, Boston Herald, 26 Feb. 2026
Owens, 35, was charged last year in Maricopa County, Arizona, with a total 14 felony counts including fraud, forgery, perjury, tampering with physical evidence, theft by extortion and taking the identity of another.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 25 Feb. 2026
Prosecutors dropped the perjury charge as part of the plea deal with McFadden.
—Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 19 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for perjury
Lucy Hodgman, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 Mar. 2026
Penton faces an additional charge of perjury for allegedly lying to the grand jury.
—Aaron Curtis, Boston Herald, 26 Feb. 2026
Owens, 35, was charged last year in Maricopa County, Arizona, with a total 14 felony counts including fraud, forgery, perjury, tampering with physical evidence, theft by extortion and taking the identity of another.
—Martha Ross, Mercury News, 25 Feb. 2026
Prosecutors dropped the perjury charge as part of the plea deal with McFadden.
—Rosalio Ahumada, Sacbee.com, 19 Feb. 2026
See All Example Sentences for perjury
Recent Examples of Synonyms for perjury
Noun
-
The company accused Moore of libel.—
Drake Bentley,
jsonline.com,
5 Mar. 2026
-
Sugar libel was snipped from both bills.—
Pat Beall,
Sun Sentinel,
27 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
These pivotal memories of Clark and Floyd’s buddy romance amount to another darkly comic portrait of a nontoxic male friendship — complete with nontraditional definitions of manhood that place meaningful friendships over monolithic strength — all built on a foundation of lies and insecurities.—
Andy Andersen,
Vulture,
23 Mar. 2026
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Its entire ecosystem—social media, podcasts, and talk radio—is committed to spreading lies and conspiracy theories, to stoking rage and resentment.—
Peter Wehner,
The Atlantic,
23 Mar. 2026
Noun
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On the surface, my life seemed organized around the pursuit of truth, but I was simultaneously being drawn into the heady distortions of the digital sphere, spending more and more of my time online.—
Hannah Gold,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Mar. 2026
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While his peers aimed to achieve maximum tension by barking about capitalism over jabbing, if not outright obnoxious, guitars, Shaw scrapped layer after layer—distortion pedals, crash cymbals, eventually the drum machine itself—to crystalize his band’s own sound.—
Nina Corcoran,
Pitchfork,
24 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Perjury.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/perjury. Accessed 25 Mar. 2026.
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