What's the difference between falsehood and mendacity?

Falsehood


Definition:

  • (n.) Want of truth or accuracy; an untrue assertion or representation; error; misrepresentation; falsity.
  • (n.) A deliberate intentional assertion of what is known to be untrue; a departure from moral integrity; a lie.
  • (n.) Treachery; deceit; perfidy; unfaithfulness.
  • (n.) A counterfeit; a false appearance; an imposture.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) It’s impossible to automate fully the process of separating truth from falsehood, and it’s dubious to cede such control to for-profit media giants.
  • (2) Unfortunately, this explosion is mild compared with the number of myths, falsehoods and downright lies which have accompanied these ideas.
  • (3) Mourinho’s pre-match utterances are generally best skimmed for the odd word not specifically dedicated to inflammatory falsehoods, but Chelsea’s manager was correct to offer some wary respect for the Football League’s champion club and here, lining up in a tightly knit 4-4-2, Leicester were sharp in the tackle early on, and pacy on the break throughout.
  • (4) When blatant falsehoods are presented as truth on critical questions - by a film that touts itself as a journalistic presentation of actual events - insisting on apolitical appreciation of this "art" is indeed a reckless abdication.
  • (5) The UK's biggest retailer began legal proceedings against the paper and its editor, Alan Rusbridger, for libel and malicious falsehood.
  • (6) Mayer blasted “falsehoods” she said had been circulating in the media, including reports that the company had spent $7m on its holiday party and $4m on a food program.
  • (7) Just as the Victorian science revolution played havoc with religious superstition, so the information revolution can now play havoc with political falsehood.
  • (8) In response Maguwu gave himself up and was charged with publishing falsehoods prejudicial to the economic interests of the state.
  • (9) Among the nine instances of alleged falsehoods, it is alleged that Coulson falsely claimed that he did not know his royal editor Clive Goodman was involved in hacking, that he did not know payments were being paid to Mulcaire for hacking and that he had not heard Mulcaire’s name prior to his arrest.
  • (10) So what are the facts and falsehoods about our new fivers?
  • (11) "They promote a falsehood, the homophobic idea of 'therapy' to change the sexual orientation of lesbians and gay men."
  • (12) I now had to learn about the law of malicious falsehood – the company claimed I personally had deliberately constructed a lie – as well as a libel.
  • (13) When it was a good story it was worth doing the extra work, but much of the time it would turn out to be a lie.” The woes of fact-checking Trump are now well known, but they weren’t then, or even when Mulcahy first wrote about them publicly: her 1988 book about her time at Page Six devotes an entire half a chapter to Trump’s fondness for falsehoods.
  • (14) Abbott has in an interview with Fairfax unleashed a fresh tirade about Julie Bishop , accusing her of peddling falsehoods about the events leading up to Turnbull’s ascension.
  • (15) But how many more times must we be subjected to the utter falsehood that somehow Cameron had to “meet the challenges of economic crisis”, as Vernon Bogdanor writes?
  • (16) Michael Cohen told the Associated Press on Saturday that Schneiderman's lawsuit was filled with falsehoods.
  • (17) While the internet and social media can lead to the rapid spread of falsehoods and dubious claims, they can also be used to check quickly such claims and expose lies ( Trump and Brexit herald a brave new word: post-truth , 16 November).
  • (18) The New York Times was right to call out the White House on obvious falsehoods, but its big headline was part of the reactive news coverage that Trump gamed throughout his campaign.
  • (19) And MSNBC still has quite a ways to go before it matches Fox's demonstrated willingness to spew outright falsehoods in pursuit of its partisan agenda.
  • (20) During a trip to Kiev, US secretary of state John Kerry claimed Moscow was “working hard to create a pretext for Russia to invade further,” and “hiding its hand behind falsehoods, intimidation and provocations.” Kerry also scoffed at reports of a news conference held by Vladimir Putin in which he appeared to deny a Russian military presence in Crimea.

Mendacity


Definition:

  • (n.) The quality or state of being mendacious; a habit of lying.
  • (n.) A falsehood; a lie.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) At a time of growing economic inequality and legislative mendacity against the poor, those human needs are still far from met.
  • (2) People eagerly accept such evidence-free claims "because the alternative mean[s] confronting outright mendacity from otherwise respected authorities, trading the calm of certainty for the disquiet of doubt".
  • (3) The mendacity with which a section of the press fanned those flames was nauseating.
  • (4) There is a mendacity about Washington – they want to take a show vote, but they don’t actually want to follow through on what they say.
  • (5) Israeli voters – including Labourites disillusioned by what they saw as Palestinian mendacity and belligerency – felt drawn to the old warrior.
  • (6) But to label it apolitical, as they have repeatedly done, either suggests willful mendacity or ignorance.
  • (7) That’s not the case.” Maybe, according to the opposites-attract principle, Armstrong’s mendacity was what attracted Hodgson: the comedian seems appalled at the thought that he might be duping people.
  • (8) The Chinese used to fill a man's mouth with dry rice, on the basis that the pressure of the untruth would interrupt his production of saliva, making the grains attach helpfully to his cheeks and tongue, to announce his mendacity.
  • (9) Corbyn plan for Labour members to get say on Trident 'against rules' Read more Historians such as Richard Rhodes and Andrew Alexander have catalogued the Nato mendacity and fear-mongering that was the cold war arms race with Russia.
  • (10) Public opposition to immigration in Britain isn't just a product of xenophobia or media mendacity, as sometimes claimed, but people's response to its impact on a deregulated labour market, under-invested housing and slashed public services.
  • (11) His mendacity on localism matters far more to the state of the nation than some minister hypocritically protesting against a library closure .
  • (12) There are times when farce and living caricature almost consume the cynicism and mendacity in the daily life of Australia’s rulers.
  • (13) In the long history of political fakery and mendacity, Cameron is the most effortlessly shameless practitioner – “ no ifs and no buts ”.
  • (14) That mendacity and violence and deceit were the order of the day.
  • (15) But the pretence that Soviet repression reached anything like the scale or depths of Nazi savagery – or that the postwar "enslavement" of eastern Europe can be equated with wartime Nazi genocide – is a mendacity that tips towards Holocaust denial.
  • (16) On Friday, Johnson and Dan Hannan said that in all probability the number of foreigners coming here won’t fall I am not going to be over-dainty about mendacity.
  • (17) What Wisconsin does offer is a transparent illustration of the ideological sophistry and political mendacity driving these attacks.
  • (18) His Eye sets its sights at genuine corruption or hypocrisy or mendacity, rather than offering tittle-tattle.
  • (19) Their posters claiming that AV will cost £250m are pure mendacity: Australia does AV with pencil and paper, no expensive voting machines.
  • (20) The claim is acquiring the same rhetorical emptiness, bordering on mendacity, as did warnings of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.