mendacity

(mĕn-dăs'ĭ-tē)
n., pl., -ties.

1. The condition of being mendacious; untruthfulness.
2. A lie; a falsehood.

View more Literature & Language videos

Mendacity (from Latin mendax 'lying') means 'habitual lying or deceiving', whereas mendicity (from Latin mendicare 'to beg') means 'the practice or habit of begging'. The words are ultimately related in having a common ancestor in the Latin word mendum meaning 'fault'.

Previous:	memorandum, memorabilia, memo
Next:	mental, mentality, merchandise

New Yorkers were given a crash course in the meaning of the word mendacity — and where to find it — by Alicia Colon, a columnist for The New York Sun:

"The first time I heard the word 'mendacity' was in the film 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.' I loved the way Burl Ives's character spits out the word as something vile and unacceptable.
"Unfortunately, we live in a society where untruthfulness is routinely accepted and even mandated by politicians, union leaders, and members of the press. New York is the headquarters of the biggest producer of mendacity, the New York Times."

Link: The Mendacity Of the Liberal Press - December 15, 2006 - The New York Sun

Posted December 17, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

noun

The practice of lying: falsehood, inveracity, perjury, truthlessness, untruthfulness. See true/false.

IN BRIEF: Dishonesty.

That city official had mendacity which was not known until the money was stolen.

Tutor's tip: The lonely tycoon tried endearing himself to others with stories of his childhood "mendicity" (the condition of being a beggar); yet when those tales proved false, he was quickly shunned for his "mendacity" (the quality of being dishonest).

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

For a list of words related to mendacity, see:

• Falsehood, Pretense, and Exaggeration - mendacity: deception; dishonesty

---

See words rhyming with "mendacity."

Dansk (Danish)
n. - løgnagtighed

Nederlands (Dutch)
leugenachtigheid, leugen, oneerlijkheid

Français (French)
n. - propension au mensonge, caractère mensonger, fausseté

Deutsch (German)
n. - Verlogenheit, Lüge

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αναλήθεια, ανειλικρίνεια

Italiano (Italian)
mendacia, bugia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - falsidade (f), hipocrisia (f)

Русский (Russian)
лживость

Español (Spanish)
n. - mendacidad, mentira, embuste

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - lögnaktighet, osanning

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
虚伪, 说谎癖, 谎话

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 虛偽, 說謊癖, 謊話

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 거짓말 하기, 가짜

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - うそをつくこと, 虚言癖, 虚偽, うそ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) كذب, كذبه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮שקר, כזב, שקרנות‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.