untruism

English

Etymology

untrue +‎ -ism

Pronunciation

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Noun

untruism (plural untruisms)

1. Something not true; a false statement.
   • 1878, Anthony Trollope, The warden and Barchester Towers: Volume 1, page 262

     No 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 132

     Parmenides' 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 118

     This 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 201

     Aristotle's implicit totalitarianism rests ultimately on a questionable inference from a metaphysical untruism.

Synonyms

• falsehood

Translations

false statement — see falsehood

Anagrams

• ustrinum