Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lying; untruthful.
  • adjective False; untrue: synonym: dishonest.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Given to lying; speaking falsely; falsifying.
  • Having the character of a lie; false; untrue: as, a mendacious report; mendacious legends.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Given to deception or falsehood; lying.
  • adjective False; counterfeit; containing falsehood.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of a person lying, untruthful or dishonest
  • adjective of a statement, etc. false or untrue

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective intentionally untrue
  • adjective given to lying

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Latin mendācium, lie, from mendāx, mendāc-, mendacious.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French mendacieux, from Latin mendācium ("lie, untruth"), from mendāx ("lying").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Bernstein said:

    "In the case George W. Bush, the American system has obviously failed -- tragically -- about which we can talk more in a minute. But imagine the difference in our worldview today, had the institutions -- particularly of government -- done their job to insure that a mendacious and dangerous president (as has since been proven many times over, beyond mere assertion) be restrained in a war that has killed thousands of American soldiers, brought turmoil to the lives of millions, and constrained the goodwill towards the United States in much of the world."

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/01/23/DI2007012301482.html?sub=new

    January 25, 2007

  • Loved this word ever since Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof said mendacity with such deliciousness!

    September 6, 2012