disinformation

English

WOTD – 18 September 2015

Etymology

Composed of dis- +‎ information. Attested in the sense “intentional misinformation” in English from 1939. A different usage of disinformation occurred earlier, as early as 1887, as a simple synonym of misinformation.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌdɪsɪnfəˈmeɪʃ(ə)n/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˌdɪsɪnfɚˈmeɪʃən/, /dɪsˌɪnfɚˈmeɪʃən/
• (Australian) IPA^(key): /ˌdɪsɪnfəˈmæɪʃ(ə)n/

  • Audio (Queensland):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

disinformation (uncountable)

1. False information intentionally disseminated to deliberately confuse or mislead; intentional misinformation.
2. Fabricated or deliberately manipulated content; intentionally created conspiracy theories or rumors.
   • 2025 May 27, Thomas Carothers, “A new low on US democracy support”, in POLITICO‎^[1]:

     Moreover, Trump’s use of obvious disinformation — the amateurish video he showed Ramaphosa, and his accompanying statements about the “over a thousand” killings of white farmers — to try and make his case has uprooted whatever U.S. credibility had survived over the last several months.

Derived terms

• disinformational
• disinformationist
• disinfotainment

Translations

intentionally false information

• Albanian: dezinformacion m
• Arabic: مَعْلُومَات مُضَلِّلَة f pl (maʕlūmāt muḍallila)
• Armenian: ապատեղեկատվություն (hy) (apateġekatvutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: dezinformasiya
• Belarusian: дэзінфарма́цыя f (dezinfarmácyja), дэзынфарма́цыя f (dezynfarmácyja)
• Bulgarian: дезинформа́ция f (dezinformácija)
• Catalan: desinformació f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 假情報 / 假情报 (jiǎ qíngbào), 訛傳 / 讹传 (zh) (échuán), 謊報 / 谎报 (zh) (huǎngbào)

• Czech: dezinformace (cs) f
• Danish: misinformation c
• Dutch: desinformatie (nl) f
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: desinformatsioon
• Finnish: disinformaatio (fi), harhatiedotus
• French: désinformation (fr) f, mésinformation (fr) f
• Georgian: დეზინფორმაცია (dezinpormacia)
• German: Desinformation (de) f
• Greek: παραπληροφόρηση (el) f (paraplirofórisi)
• Hebrew: דִּיסְאִינְפוֹרְמַצְיָה (he) f (disinformátsya)
• Hindi: दुस्सूचना m (dussūcnā), दुष्प्रचार m (duṣpracār)
• Hungarian: dezinformáció (hu), félrevezetés (hu)
• Indonesian: disinformasi (id)
• Irish: bréagaisnéis f, bréageolas m
• Italian: disinformazione (it) f, controinformazione (it) f, misinformazione (it) f
• Japanese: 偽情報 (にせじょうほう, nisejōhō), 誤報 (ja) (ごほう, gohō)
• Kazakh: дезинформация (dezinformasiä)
• Khmer: ព័ត៌មានមិនពិត (pɔədɑɑmiən mɨn pɨt)
• Korean: 역정보(逆情報) (yeokjeongbo), 오보(誤報) (ko) (obo)
• Kyrgyz: дезинформация (dezinformatsiya)
• Latvian: dezinformācija f
• Lithuanian: dezinformacija f
• Macedonian: дезинформација f (dezinformacija)
• Malay: maklumat palsu, disinformasi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: desinformasjon m

  Nynorsk: desinformasjon m

• Persian: دروغ‌رسانی (dorôġ-resâni), دروغ‌پراکنی (dorôġ-parâkani)
• Polish: dezinformacja (pl) f
• Portuguese: desinformação (pt) f
• Romanian: dezinformație f, dezinformare (ro) f
• Russian: дезинформа́ция (ru) f (dezinformácija), де́за (ru) f (déza) (colloquial)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дезинформа́ција f

  Latin: dezinformácija (sh) f

• Slovak: dezinformácia f
• Slovene: dezinformácija f
• Spanish: desinformación (es) f
• Swedish: desinformation (sv) c
• Tajik: маълумоти дурӯғ (ma'lumot-i durüġ), дуруғрасонӣ (duruġrasoni)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: dezenformasyon (tr)
• Turkmen: dezinformasiýa
• Ukrainian: дезінформа́ція f (dezinformácija), дезінформува́ння n (dezinformuvánnja)
• Uzbek: dezinformatsiya
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

Verb

disinformation (third-person singular simple present disinformations, present participle disinformationing, simple past and past participle disinformationed)

1. (transitive) To use disinformation.

   A country cannot disinformation its way out of fallen soldiers.

Related terms

• dezinformatsiya
• disinform
• malinformation

See also

• misinformation
• propaganda

Further reading

• “disinformation”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
• “disinformation, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “disinformation”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “disinformation”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “disinformation”, in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2026