The Art of Lying... or Telling the Truth
(To tell the truth, the whole truth, and... oh, who's kidding who?)

The act of lying or telling the truth is a complicated on in English. Are you lying by hiding something or just making it up as you go? These words are all related to lying or telling the truth, but most all about the ways that people play tricks with words. Face it, people have some pretty creative ways to get around honesty.

1. apocryphal

Of doubtful authorship or authenticity; false; spurious.

This is something that some people believe to be true, but it generally isn't.

He told an apocryphal story about the sword, but the truth was later revealed.
2. beguile

to influence by trickery, flattery, etc.; mislead; delude. To charm or divert

Sometimes beguile is an innocent word, the charm of a castle can beguile a tourist, but it's often used to mean that someone is charmed by someone who is using tricks.

The young man beguiled the wealthy woman with kind words and gifts and convinced her to marry him and share her fortune.
3. candor

the state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in speech or expression

So, this is a person who just comes out and tells the truth.

I appreciate your candor, but did you really have to tell me you hated my new hairdo?
4. debunk

to reveal a claim as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated

In other words, debunking something means to point out all the lies and to show what the real truth is.

 
5. devious

departing from the proper or accepted way; not straightforward; shifty or crooked

 

  
6. dissemble

to give a false or misleading appearance to; conceal the truth or real nature of

 

  
7. duplicity

speaking or acting in two different ways concerning the same matter with intent to deceive; double-dealing

 

  
8. embellish

to add ornamentation or decoration; to enhance a statement or story with fictitious additions

 

  
9. fabricate

to make by art or skill and labor; construct: to fake; forge (a document, signature, etc.).

 

  
10. fallacious

containing a fallacy; logically unsound: deceptive; misleading

 

  
11. furtive

taken, done, used, etc., surreptitiously or by stealth like a furtive glance. sly; shifty

 

  
12. guile

insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity.

 

  
13. hypocrisy

a pretense of having a virtuous character that one does not really possess; pretendint to have some desirable or publicly approved attitude.

 

  
14. mendacious

telling lies, esp. habitually; dishonest; lying; untruthful

 

  
15. obfuscate

to confuse, bewilder, or stupefy; to make obscure or unclear

 

  
16. pretense

pretending or feigning; make-believe; the act of pretending or alleging falsely.

 

  
17. sanctimonious

making a hypocritical show of religious devotion which one does not truly believe

 

  
18. spurious

not genuine, authentic, or true; not from the claimed, pretended, or proper source; counterfeit.

 

  
19. surreptitious

obtained, done, made, etc., by stealth; secret or unauthorized; acting in a stealthy way.

 

  
20. veracity

habitual observance of truth in speech or statement; truthfulness; correctness or accuracy

 

  

 

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Last Updated 11-21-07