• Untruism

    Pronunciation

    Origin

    untrue + -ism

    Full definition of untruism

    Noun

    untruism

    (plural untruisms)
    1. Something not true; a false statement.
      • 1878, Anthony Trollope, The warden and Barchester Towers: Volume 1, page 262No one but a preaching clergyman can revel in platitudes, truisms, and untruisms, and yet receive, as his undisputed privilege, the same respectful demeanour as though words of impassioned eloquence, or persuasive logic, fell from his lips.
      • 1982, Jonathan Barnes, The Presocratic Philosophers, page 132Parmenides' philosophy rests, if I am right, on an untruism; it is some slight consolation that his was by no means the last system to be built on such a sandy foundation.
      • 1993, Roy Sorenson, Pseudo-Problems, page 118This fickle oscillation is often precipitated by the chameleon-like quality of 'untruisms'
    'An untruism is an ambiguous sentence
      • 2005, Richard Kraut, Steven Skultety, Aristotle's Politics, page 201Aristotle's implicit totalitarianism rests ultimately on a questionable inference from a metaphysical untruism.
    1. Tom thinks that the White House press corps only deals in untruisms and other methods of misleading the public.

    Synonyms

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