untruth

English

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English untreuth, from Old English untrēowþ and unġetrēowþ, from Proto-West Germanic *untriuwiþu and *ungatriuwiþu, equivalent to un- +‎ truth. Cognate with Old High German ungitriuwida.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ŭn-trōōth′, IPA^(key): /ʌnˈtɹuːθ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːθ

Noun

untruth (countable and uncountable, plural untruths)

1. A lie or falsehood.
   • 1926, Herbert Weir Smyth, “Agamemnon”, in Aeschylus, with an English translation, volume II, page 55:

     Herald The prince was swept from the sight of the Achaean host—himself, and his ship likewise. ’Tis no untruth I tell.

   • 2022 January 26, Paul Stephen, “Network News: Government's IRP claims condemned as "dishonest"”, in RAIL, number 949, page 7:

     He added: "We've always had spin, especially from Government. But this is not spin. This is dishonesty and so it's our rail media's urgent responsibility to call it out because non-specialist journalists across the country will report this and gradually these untruths will be accepted.

   • 2023 January 10, Cade Metz, “A.I. Is Becoming More Conversational. But Will It Get More Honest?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 14 March 2023:

     It may tell you that the official currency of Switzerland is the euro (it’s actually the Swiss franc) or that Mark Twain’s Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County could not only jump but talk. A.I. researchers call this generation of untruths “hallucination.”

2. The condition of being false; truthlessness.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:falsehood

Derived terms

• untruther

Translations

lie or falsehood

• Bulgarian: лъжа (bg) f (lăža), неистина (bg) f (neistina)
• Czech: nepravda (cs) f
• Danish: usandhed (da) c
• French: mensonge (fr) m, menterie (fr) f, contrevérité (fr) f
• German: Unwahrheit (de) f
• Greek:

  Ancient Greek: ψεῦδος n (pseûdos)

• Hungarian: valótlanság (hu), hazugság (hu)
• Irish: ainfhírinne f, ainbhfíor m
• Italian: bugia (it) f, falsità (it) f
• Kikuyu: iheeni class 5
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: usannhet m or f

• Plautdietsch: Lieej f, Onwoarheit f
• Portuguese: inverdade (pt) f
• Russian: непра́вда (ru) f (neprávda)
• Sanskrit: मिथ्या (sa) (mithyā), असत्य (sa) n (asatya)
• Serbo-Croatian: neistina (sh) f, netačnost f
• Swedish: osanning (sv) c
• Telugu: అసత్యము (te) (asatyamu)
• Tocharian B: waike
• Welsh: anwiredd (cy)

the condition of being false

• Bulgarian: погрешност f (pogrešnost)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Woiwurrung: ^{(please verify)} man-in-da