false

Meanings

Adjective

• Untrue, not factual, factually incorrect.
• Based on factually incorrect premises.
• Spurious, artificial.
• Uttering falsehood; dishonest or deceitful.
• Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.; untrue; treacherous.
• Not well founded; not firm or trustworthy; erroneous.
• Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.
• Out of tune.

Verb

• To incorrectly decode noise as if it were a valid signal.
• To violate, to betray (a promise, an agreement, one’s faith, etc.).
• To counterfeit, to forge.
• To make false, to corrupt from something true or real.

Adverb

• In a dishonest and disloyal way; falsely.

Noun

• One of two options on a true-or-false test.

Related

Similar words

• lease

Opposite words

• real, true

Origin

• From Middle English false, fals, from Old English fals ("false; counterfeit; fraudulent; wrong; mistaken"), from Latin falsus ("counterfeit, false; falsehood"), perfect passive participle of fallō. Reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman and Old French fals, faus. Compare Scots fals, false, Saterland Frisian falsk, German falsch, Dutch vals, Swedish and Danish falsk; all from Latin falsus. Displaced native Middle English les, lese, from Old English lēas; See lease, leasing. faux.
• The verb is from Middle English falsen, falsien, from Old French falser, from Latin falsō ("falsify"), itself also from falsus; compare French fausser ("to falsify, to distort").