mendacious
Given to falsehoods
Mendacious means lying or habitually dishonest.
The word applies to people who deceive and to the statements they make: a mendacious witness, mendacious claims about election fraud.
It's more formal than "lying" and often appears in legal, political, or literary contexts.
The noun is mendacity.
Inclined to mislead others
- dishonestInclined to deceive
- untruthfulNot speaking facts
- duplicitousDeliberately deceptive in nature
- disingenuousFeigning ignorance or innocence
two-faced · perfidious · treacherous · fraudulent · guileful · dissembling · falsehearted · underhanded
Not speaking facts
- prevaricatingAvoiding direct honesty
- fibbingTelling minor falsehoods
- perjuriousLying under oath
- fabricatingManufacturing falsely
misrepresenting · misinforming · dissembling · equivocating · falsifying · inventing · concocting · misstating
Deliberate untrue statement
- untruthA false statement
- lieDeliberate falsehood
- fibTrivial, harmless falsehood
- whopperOutsized thing or untruth
tall-tale · fabrication · misrepresentation · distortion · half-truth · canard · calumny · slander
Feigning ignorance or innocence
- hypocriticalFeigning beliefs one lacks
- feignedFalsely displayed or simulated
- phonyFraudulent person or thing
- pretentiousFalsely grand or important
artificial · glib · slick · evasive · hollow · empty · specious · mealy-mouthed
deceitful
Inclined to mislead others
- dishonestInclined to deceive
- untruthfulNot speaking facts
- duplicitousDeliberately deceptive in nature
disingenuous · two-faced · perfidious · treacherous · fraudulent · guileful · dissembling · falsehearted · underhanded · crooked
untruthful
Not speaking facts
- prevaricatingAvoiding direct honesty
- fibbingTelling minor falsehoods
- perjuriousLying under oath
fabricating · misrepresenting · misinforming · dissembling · equivocating · falsifying · inventing · concocting · misstating · deceiving
falsehood
Deliberate untrue statement
whopper · tall-tale · fabrication · misrepresentation · distortion · half-truth · canard · calumny · slander · libel
disingenuous
Feigning ignorance or innocence
- hypocriticalFeigning beliefs one lacks
- feignedFalsely displayed or simulated
- phonyFraudulent person or thing
pretentious · artificial · glib · slick · evasive · hollow · empty · specious · mealy-mouthed · smooth-talking
- fancy wordsgrandiloquent, magniloquent, sesquipedalian, pulchritudinous, tintinnabulation