FALSEHOOD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does falsehood mean? 

• FALSEHOOD (noun)
  The noun FALSEHOOD has 2 senses:

1. a false statement

2. the act of rendering something false as by fraudulent changes (of documents or measures etc.) or counterfeiting

  Familiarity information: FALSEHOOD used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FALSEHOOD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A false statement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

falsehood; falsity; untruth

Hypernyms ("falsehood" is a kind of...):

statement (a message that is stated or declared; a communication (oral or written) setting forth particulars or facts etc)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "falsehood"):

dodge; dodging; scheme (a statement that evades the question by cleverness or trickery)

lie; prevarication (a statement that deviates from or perverts the truth)

fable; fabrication; fiction (a deliberately false or improbable account)

deceit; deception; misrepresentation (a misleading falsehood)

contradiction; contradiction in terms ((logic) a statement that is necessarily false)

Antonym:

truth (a true statement)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of rendering something false as by fraudulent changes (of documents or measures etc.) or counterfeiting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

falsehood; falsification

Hypernyms ("falsehood" is a kind of...):

dishonesty; knavery (lack of honesty; acts of lying or cheating or stealing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "falsehood"):

frame-up; setup (an act that incriminates someone on a false charge)

sophistication (falsification by the use of sophistry; misleading by means of specious fallacies)

forgery (criminal falsification by making or altering an instrument with intent to defraud)

 Context examples 

In what is that man assisting him, who never looks at me without an inscrutable falsehood in his eyes?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

This I solemnly declare to be a most infamous falsehood, without any grounds, further than that her grace was pleased to treat me with all innocent marks of freedom and friendship.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

She was born to discover the falsehood of her own opinions, and to counteract, by her conduct, her most favourite maxims.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I have a place to repair to, which will be a secure sanctuary from hateful reminiscences, from unwelcome intrusion—even from falsehood and slander.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The story is too connected to be mistaken for a dream, and I have no motive for falsehood.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Elizabeth was forced to give into a little falsehood here; for to acknowledge the substance of their conversation was impossible.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Its inconsistencies, contradictions, and falsehood struck her from the very first.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

A disagreeable truth would be palatable through her lips, but I am the wretchedest being in the world at a civil falsehood.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Indeed, you shall not; it shall not be in your power; for so long only as you positively say, in every letter to Mary, 'I am well,' and I know you cannot speak or write a falsehood, so long only shall you be considered as well.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

You have been charged with falsehood; defend yourself to me as well as you can.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)