| English Dictionary |
FALSE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does false mean?
• FALSE (adjective)
The adjective FALSE has 10 senses:
1. not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality
2. arising from error
3. erroneous and usually accidental
4. deliberately deceptive
5. inappropriate to reality or facts
6. not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article
7. designed to deceive
8. inaccurate in pitch
9. adopted in order to deceive
10. (used especially of persons) not dependable in devotion or affection; unfaithful
Familiarity information: FALSE used as an adjective is familiar.
• FALSE (adverb)
The adverb FALSE has 1 sense:
1. in a disloyal and faithless manner
Familiarity information: FALSE used as an adverb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality
Context example:
false tales of bravery
Similar:
untrue (not according with the facts)
trumped-up (concocted with intent to deceive)
specious; spurious (plausible but false)
mendacious (intentionally untrue)
Also:
incorrect; wrong (not correct; not in conformity with fact or truth)
insincere (lacking sincerity)
dishonest; dishonorable (deceptive or fraudulent; disposed to cheat or defraud or deceive)
counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)
Attribute:
the true; trueness; truth; verity (conformity to reality or actuality)
Antonym:
true (consistent with fact or reality; not false)
Derivation:
falseness (the state of being false or untrue)
falsity (a false statement)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Arising from error
Synonyms:
false; mistaken
Context example:
a mistaken view of the situation
Similar:
incorrect; wrong (not correct; not in conformity with fact or truth)
Derivation:
falseness; falsity (the state of being false or untrue)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Erroneous and usually accidental
Context example:
a false alarm
Similar:
invalid (having no cogency or legal force)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Deliberately deceptive
Context example:
false pretenses
Similar:
insincere (lacking sincerity)
Derivation:
falseness (unfaithfulness by virtue of being unreliable or treacherous)
falsity (a false statement)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Inappropriate to reality or facts
Synonyms:
delusive; false
Context example:
false hopes
Similar:
unrealistic (not realistic)
Derivation:
falseness; falsity (the state of being false or untrue)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article
Synonyms:
fake; false; faux; imitation; simulated
Context example:
a purse of simulated alligator hide
Similar:
artificial; unreal (contrived by art rather than nature)
Sense 7
Meaning:
Designed to deceive
Context example:
a suitcase with a false bottom
Similar:
dishonest; dishonorable (deceptive or fraudulent; disposed to cheat or defraud or deceive)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Inaccurate in pitch
Synonyms:
Context example:
her singing was off key
Similar:
inharmonious; unharmonious (not in harmony)
Sense 9
Meaning:
Adopted in order to deceive
Synonyms:
assumed; false; fictitious; fictive; pretended; put on; sham
Context example:
sham modesty
Similar:
counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)
Derivation:
falseness (the quality of not being open or truthful; deceitful or hypocritical)
Sense 10
Meaning:
(used especially of persons) not dependable in devotion or affection; unfaithful
Synonyms:
false; untrue
Context example:
when lovers prove untrue
Similar:
inconstant (likely to change frequently often without apparent or cogent reason; variable)
Derivation:
falseness (the quality of not being open or truthful; deceitful or hypocritical)
falsity (the state of being false or untrue)
Sense 1
Meaning:
In a disloyal and faithless manner
Synonyms:
faithlessly; false; traitorously; treacherously; treasonably
Context example:
his wife played him false
Context examples
“I beg of you not to receive false impressions of us from Mr. Van Weyden,” he interposed with mock anxiety.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
I know that you must fight—that you must destroy even as you destroyed the false Lucy so that the true Lucy might live hereafter; but it is not a work of hate.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
Issue associated with the non-compliance of the device to meet its specific performance characteristics thereby causing a false reading.
(False Reading from Medical Device Non-Compliance, Food and Drug Administration)
He won her with his title and his money and his false London ways.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Phosphine, they found, has no significant false positives, meaning any detection of phosphine is a sure sign of life.
(Poisonous Earthly Molecule May Be Sign of Extraterrestrial Life, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
A false sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion which is a misperception of an external stimulus.
(Hallucination, NCI Thesaurus)
“Never,” said my aunt, “be mean in anything; never be false; never be cruel. Avoid those three vices, Trot, and I can always be hopeful of you.”
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) Does the patient have hallucinations such as seeing false visions or hearing false voices?
(NPI - Hallucinations Such as Seeing False Visions or Hearing False Voices, NCI Thesaurus)
Iobenguane, structurally related to norepinephrine, functioning as a false substrate of norepinephrine, and is taken up and localized in the granules of pre-synaptic adrenergic neurons.
(Iobenguane I-123, NCI Thesaurus)
A disorder characterized by a false sensory perception in the absence of an external stimulus.
(Hallucination, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)
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