false
- adjective
- /fɔls/
- The choir's harmony was disrupted by a false note from one of the singers.
But it's always like it's so well curated and I've, you know, I have yet to see somebody that strikes a false note.
- But it's always like it's so well curated and I've, you know, I have yet to see somebody that strikes a false note.
Examples
-
During the performance, she hit a false note that made the audience cringe.
-
In order not to sound false, writers must keep a delicate balance between the narrator's and the character's discourse.
Academic text (2001) -
I was sorry to hear a false note in Olga's voice.
Fiction book (1993) -
If you put them in at the wrong time, they're going to strike a false note.
Blog text (16) -
This doesn't really accomplish anything... but gives you the false sense that we're engaged with you.
-
Owen Wilson's accent here rings somewhat false, and yet his earnest gentleness keeps it from veering into Foghorn Leghorn territory.
Blog text (14) -
The musician was embarrassed when he played a false note during the concert.
Synonyms
Notes are at the wrong pitch so a piano or violin sounds bad
A voice or instrument that sounds in the wrong pitch
Not in tune and sounding wrong
Not singing or playing the right musical notes
Slightly lower in pitch than the correct note
Slightly lower in pitch than it should be
Not tuned to the correct musical pitch
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 In Tune
Surface Forms
Etymology
False comes from the Latin falsus, from fallere 'to deceive', and here it keeps the idea of 'not true'. So a false note is one that is not the true pitch and sounds out of tune.