: given to or characterized by deception or falsehood or divergence from absolute truth
mendacious tales of his adventures
mendaciouslyadverb
mendaciousnessnoun
Did you know?
Mendacious and lying have very similar meanings, but the two are not interchangeable. Mendacious is more formal and literary, suggesting a deception harmless enough to be considered somewhat bland. Lying is more blunt, accusatory, and often confrontational. You might yell, "You lying rat!" in an argument, but you would most likely stick to the more diplomatic, "Aren't you being somewhat mendacious?" in a business meeting. Mendacious can also imply habitual untruthfulness, whereas lying is more likely to be used to identify specific instances of dishonesty.
dishonest implies a willful perversion of truth in order to deceive, cheat, or defraud.
a swindle usually involves two dishonest people
deceitful usually implies an intent to mislead and commonly suggests a false appearance or double-dealing.
the secret affairs of a deceitful spouse
mendacious may suggest bland or even harmlessly mischievous deceit and when used of people often suggests a habit of telling untruths.
mendacious tales of adventure
untruthful stresses a discrepancy between what is said and fact or reality.
an untruthful account of their actions
Example Sentences
Indeed, the racist and Malthusian elements in Darwin's work are subjects on which the new secularists are either silent, delicate, or mendacious. Eugene McCarraher, Commonweal, 15 June 2007A choice item in the collection of mendacious stories that were circulated about Columbus after his death is this. Columbus lost himself on the way to Hispaniola, and only by virtue of letters and pilots sent by Martín Alonso did he manage to find the island and join Pinta. Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1942Mildred had become great friends with her and had given her an elaborate but mendacious account of the circumstances which had brought her to the pass she was in. W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, 1915 The newspaper story was mendacious and hurtful. that tabloid routinely publishes the most moronically mendacious stories about celebrities
Recent Examples on the WebIn 2016, Johnson galvanized support for leaving the EU with a mendacious campaign that pledged, erroneously, that £350 billion ($425 billion) of money sent to Europe would come back into the Bank of England. Sam Kiley, CNN, 30 June 2022 Lerner, a former debate champion, portrays its participants as hostile, bullying, mendacious, glib, annoying, and practiced in a dark art. Bo Seo, The Atlantic, 1 June 2022 The revolution was overseen by pragmatic, opportunistic and sometimes mendacious visitors, who variously travelled with their own concubines and caught unwary abbots with theirs. Crawford Gribben, WSJ, 29 Apr. 2022 That declaration is a smokescreen for the ongoing effort to perpetuate Big Cherry’s Big Lie — concerning the town’s origin story — which playwright Letts exhilaratingly brings to light, point by mendacious point.Washington Post, 18 Apr. 2022 War is worshipped and justified by the state’s mendacious propaganda machine. Alexander Motyl, The Conversation, 30 Mar. 2022 The chance that these good bougie friends could all be Pelosi voters raises the specter of other mendacious California female partisans Boxer and Feinstein and their ferocious Hollywood supporters. Armond White, National Review, 17 Nov. 2021 Selfish, feckless, self-deluded, weak-willed yet childishly willful, manipulative, slothful, and mendacious: How can such a despicable character also be such a likable one? Sigrid Nunez, Harper's Magazine, 28 Sep. 2021 Yet the conspiratorial and at times clownish attempts to overturn the election -- especially by Trump's legal team -- don't make an unprecedented effort to destroy America's democratic traditions any less mendacious. Stephen Collinson, CNN, 22 Sep. 2021 See More