falsity

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Corresponding to false +‎ -ity. From Middle French fausseté, Old French falseté, from Late Latin falsitas, from Latin falsus.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

falsity (countable and uncountable, plural falsities)

  1. (countable) Something that is false; an untrue assertion.
    The belief that the world is flat is a falsity.
  2. (uncountable) The characteristic of being untrue.
    • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four‎[1], Part Two, Chapter 9:
      The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of DOUBLETHINK he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt.
    The falsity of that statement is easily proven.

Usage notes[edit]

  • Falsehood, Falseness, Falsity; untruth, fabrication, fiction. Instances may be quoted in abundance from old authors to show that the first three words are often strictly synonymous; but the modern tendency has been decidedly in favor of separating them, falsehood standing for the concrete thing, an intentional lie; falseness, for the quality of being guiltily false or treacherous: as, he is justly despised for his falseness to his oath; and falsity, for the quality of being false without blame: as, the falsity of reasoning. — The Century Dictionary, 1911.

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