Definitions

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

  • noun The quality or condition of being false.
  • noun Something false; a lie.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The character of being false; contrariety or nonconformity to truth or fidelity; falseness.
  • noun That which is false; a falsehood; a lie; a false assertion.
  • noun Synonyms Falsity, etc. (see falsehood); incorrectness, erroneousness, fallaciousness.

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

  • noun The quality of being false; coutrariety or want of conformity to truth.
  • noun That which is false; falsehood; a lie; a false assertion.

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

  • noun countable Something that is false; an untrue assertion.
  • noun uncountable The characteristic of being untrue.

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

  • noun the state of being false or untrue
  • noun a false statement

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

false +‎ -ity

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word falsity.

Examples

  • The final paragraph was cut for space — it's not absolutely necessary, but I liked the comparison: “In opera buffa, it usually ends when all the falsity is discovered,” Ganz goes on, “like the end of ‘Figaro,’ where everything is revealed, and all is happy.”

    Universal leader Matthew Guerrieri 2009

  • The final paragraph was cut for space — it's not absolutely necessary, but I liked the comparison: “In opera buffa, it usually ends when all the falsity is discovered,” Ganz goes on, “like the end of ‘Figaro,’ where everything is revealed, and all is happy.”

    Archive 2009-01-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2009

  • BTW, actual falsity is not required for a perjury conviction under 18 USC § 1621.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Not the Best Way to Inspire Confidence 2010

  • In every litigated case, the parties disagree about whether the falsity is literal or only implicit.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Rebecca Tushnet 2009

  • Unless you get rid of the Lanham Act and the FTC, kicking Kasky out of the running still leaves Nike subject to a plain falsity/misleadingness standard in its ads.

    Archive 2009-04-01 Rebecca Tushnet 2009

  • Literal falsity is a dandy doctrine because it provides a way to end litigation quickly: judicial economy.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Rebecca Tushnet 2009

  • The denizens of this world are so lost in falsity and nothingness that they convict themselves even in their vain defenses of the disgusting behavior at issue.

    Matthew Yglesias » Penn Again 2007

  • The Liavek shared-world stories, where one group, originated by Nate Bucklin [markiv1111] believes this to be the case; its truth or falsity is not established.

    Back on line 2007

  • Yet such was her distress I was sorry for her, though I believed it to be rooted and grounded in falsity, and that she had no need to regard with such disapprobation her sister's being indebted to an English gentleman who gave her in all honour the best he had.

    The Heart's Highway: A Romance of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century 1900

  • All three elements of perjury [1). belief in falsity, 2). under oath, affirmation or penalty of perjury, and 3). materiality] are matters for a jury to determine.

    The Volokh Conspiracy » Not the Best Way to Inspire Confidence 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.