1
general::
untrue
[ not usually before noun ] not true, because the person does not know the facts, or because they are lying:
• It is untrue that the college broke the terms of the contract. • The allegations are completely untrue.
false
not true and not based on the facts, or not the real one:
• The article gives a totally false impression of life in Russia today. • He gave a false name and address to the police. • Decide whether these statements are true or false .
something is not the case
if what someone says or believes is happening is not the case, it is not happening and what they say or believe is not true:
• Recent reports suggest that violent crime is increasing, but this is simply not the case. • People think there’s an endless supply of fish, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
misleading
a misleading statement or piece of information makes people believe something that is not true, especially because it does not give all the facts:
• The holiday brochure is deliberately misleading, because the hotels it shows are not the ones you actually stay in. • These statistics give a misleading impression of what is happening to the economy.
trumped-up
trumped-up charges, accusations, evidence etc use information that is not true in order to make someone seem guilty of doing something wrong:
• He had been arrested by the secret police on trumped-up charges of spying. • Zola believed that the case against Dreyfus was trumped-up and utterly false.
something that is untrue
myth
something a lot of people believe because they want to believe it, not because it is based on fact:
• The first myth about motherhood is that new mothers instantly fall in love with their babies. • Contrary to popular myth , our streets are much safer now than they were 100 years ago.
illusion
a belief or idea that is false, especially a belief in something good about yourself or about the situation you are in:
• Alcohol gives people the illusion of being witty and confident. • People bought the land under the illusion that the value would increase.
misconception
an idea that is not true but which people believe because they do not have all the facts, or they have not properly understood the situation:
• It’s a common misconception that vaccinations given in childhood last for life. • Employers seem to share the general misconception that young people are more efficient than older workers.
delusion
a completely mistaken idea, which affects your behaviour and what you decide to do:
• He began to suffer from paranoid delusions. • Many people labour under the delusion (= have the delusion ) that anything which says ‘natural ingredients’ on the label must be harmless. • the delusion that women control most of the world' s wealth and power
fallacy
if you say that something is a fallacy, you mean that it is completely wrong to believe that it is true:
• The idea that a good night’s sleep will cure everything is a complete fallacy. • It’s a fallacy that all fat people are fat simply because they eat too much.
Longman-Thesaurus