false
- adjective
- /fɔls/
- He was arrested for giving a false identity when applying for a loan.
- a false impression
- a false name
- false and misleading
They they used us and the false narrative to push their agendas.
- They they used us and the false narrative to push their agendas.
- She's been living in a false, fake self, and that's scary.
- So it's almost like you're falling in love with a false version of yourself.
- And just to remember that that's a false sense of power that's not real.
- Or, you know, there's a lot of false bravado.
- False flick, false form, but falseness close to kin.
- It's this false acting version of that same thing.
Examples
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According to the Canadian government, the vast majority of applications were "false" or "bogus."
Academic text (2012) -
Overhyping science discoveries can give people a false sense of how science works.
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Are you using the Internet to spread false information?
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Most men carry some form of a false identity.
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OK, so we arrive at a false statement in this case.
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It's easier to sit with the uncertainty or the false hope, right?
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Trump has used Twitter as his platform to disseminate false information, lies, right?
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And just to remember that that's a false sense of power that's not real.
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And so all the things that have happened to him from the point that he lied about his name to this point has happened under false pretenses.
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Rather than behaving out of any sense of moral duty, false claims of benevolence were made from indifference.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
Not real and made to look like something real
Trying to seem real to deceive people
Fake and made to trick people
Appearing true but making someone believe something that is not true
Not real and made up
Not real but made to look like something real to copy it
Appearing true but actually wrong
Not real or true, often made to seem true
Seems real but is actually false
Not real and not what it looks like
Not real and made up for a story or to hide the truth
Appearing real but not actually true
Not real and made to trick people
Made to seem real to trick people
Made to look real to trick people
Made to look like the real thing for practice
Used to hide someone's real name, identity or feelings
Antonyms
Idioms
Compounds
- Specialized
Keeping someone somewhere against their will when the law does not allow it
- Formal
Saying false things in court on purpose after promising to tell the truth
- Specialized
Painless tightening of the belly before birth that does not make the baby come
- Specialized
A condition when a woman shows signs like missed periods and feeling sick but no baby inside
A North American plant that lives for many years with spikes of blue flowers and gray-green leaves
A brown mushroom that looks like a morel and grows under pines in California and can be poisonous
- Specialized
A group of leaf-like parts under a flower that look like the green outer leaves
A plant with white, pink, or purple flowers like a daisy that blooms in autumn and likes wet ground
An evergreen shrub or small tree from tropical America with soft fruit used as natural soap
A North American plant in the mint family with two-lipped pink or white flowers in a spike
- Specialized
A garden plant from North America with a tall stem of two-lipped pink or white flowers
A plant from western North America with clumps of low leaves and pale fringed flowers on long stalks
A small plant with many tiny white flowers that florists use as bouquet filler
A pale plant like the Indian pipe that gets food from dead matter in forests
A climbing bush from North America with small yellow pods holding bright red seeds
A tall plant with large leaves and white summer flowers that grows in eastern United States woods
- Specialized
A fruit like an apple or pear whose edible part comes from other flower parts
- Specialized
A North American garden plant with clusters of creamy white flowers that grows in moist shade
A small woodland plant with loose clusters of white spring flowers that grows in damp woods
- Specialized
A poisonous mushroom with a wrinkled honeycomb cap that looks like an edible morel
- UK
A tall coarse grass like oat that grows by roadsides, in fields, and is used for animal feed
A tall plant that makes a lot of pollen and can cause hay fever or itchy rashes when touched
- Specialized
A North American wild plant with hairy leaves and small yellowish or greenish flowers
- Specialized
A wild plant like a lily that grows every year with large leaves and thick poisonous roots
- Specialized
A North American shrub with blue or purple flowers often grown in gardens
- Specialized
A small plant with white bell-shaped flowers that looks like the true lily of the valley
- Specialized
A bushy wild plant from the western United States with yellow, pea-shaped flowers that look like lupines
- Specialized
A plant disease caused by a fungus that attacks crops like grapes, potatoes, and melons
- Specialized
American plants that look like mistletoe but are not the true mistletoe
A small plant from eastern North America with thick roots and white flowers tinged pink
A large extinct North American cat from millions of years ago with long front teeth like later saber-toothed cats
A plant like a thistle with red or orange flowers whose seeds make an oil used instead of saffron
- Specialized
One of two thin pieces of tissue above the voice box that do not make sound
- Indian
A cycad plant from southeast India that looks like a palm but is not a true sago
- Specialized
A disease of rice that covers the grains with a green powder of fungus spores
How Genuine
Surface Forms
Etymology
False comes from the Latin falsus, from fallere 'to deceive', giving the sense of something made to trick people. That's why a false moustache or a false passport is not real and is meant to deceive.