false
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /fɔːls/
ipa: /fɒls/
note: without the cot–caught merger
ipa: /fɔls/
note: of Canada
ipa: /fɑls/
note: of the US
ipa: /fɒls/
ipa: /foːls/
ipa: [fɔːɫs]
rhymes: -ɔːls
rhymes: -ɒls
Forms: form: falser
form: falsest
Etymology: From Middle English false, fals, from Old English fals (“false; counterfeit; fraudulent; wrong; mistaken”), from Latin falsus (“counterfeit, false; falsehood”), perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman and Old French fals, faus. Compare Scots fals, false, Saterland Frisian falsk, German falsch, Dutch vals, Swedish and Danish falsk; all from Latin falsus. Displaced native Middle English les, lese, from Old English lēas (“false”); See lease, leasing. Doublet of faux.
The verb is from Middle English falsen, falsien, from Old French falser, from Latin falsō (“falsify”), itself also from falsus; compare French fausser (“to falsify, to distort”).
Senses: examples: text: Also the rule of false position, with dyuers examples not onely vulgar, but some appertaynyng to the rule of Algeber.
ref: 1551, James A.H. Murray, editor, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles: Founded Mainly on the Materials Collected by the Philological Society, volume 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1888, Part 1, page 217, column 2:
glosses: Untrue, not factual, factually incorrect.
examples: text: false legislation, false punishment
glosses: Based on factually incorrect premises.
examples: text: false teeth
text: At her invitation he outlined for her the succeeding chapters with terse military accuracy; and what she liked best and best understood was avoidance of that false modesty which condescends, turning technicality into pabulum.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Silverside”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 300:
glosses: Spurious, artificial.
topics: human-sciences
logic
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: Of a state in Boolean logic that indicates a negative result.
examples: text: a false witness
glosses: Uttering falsehood; dishonest or deceitful.
examples: text: a false friend, lover, or subject;  false to promises
text: I to my ſelf was falſe, e’re thou to me,[…]
ref: 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 52, line 25:
text: She had been in Baton Rouge but a little over two weeks, when suddenly his letters ceased. She awaited in anxious suspense a whole week — no letter. Another week dragged heavily, and her anxiety became a terrible fear. Was he sick and unable to write — was he dead — or, still more terrible thought, had he proved false?
ref: 1861, E. J. Guerin, Mountain Charley, page 7:
glosses: Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.; untrue; treacherous.
examples: text: a false conclusion;  a false construction in grammar
text: So downe he fell, as an huge rockie clift, / Whoſe falſe foundacion waues haue waſht away,[…]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 54, page 170:
glosses: Not well founded; not firm or trustworthy; erroneous.
glosses: Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.
examples: text: false scorpion (an arachnid)
text: false killer whale (a dolphin)
text: false powderpost beetles (members of Bostrichidae not in Lyctinae)
glosses: Used in the vernacular name of a species (or group of species) together with the name of another species to which it is similar in appearance.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Out of tune.
Synonyms: lease
Derived terms: bear false witness
false 9
false acacia
false action
false advertising
false alarm
false albacore
false alder
false analogy
false antechinus
false arrest
false attack
false balance
false banana
false blue indigo
false borrowing
false bottom
false buttonweed
falsecard
false chanterelle
false cirrus
false cognate
false colour
false conception
false consciousness
false cousin
false croup
false cypress
false daisy
false dandelion
false dawn
false dichotomy
false dilemma
false documentary
falsedom
false drop
false easting
false economy
false equivalence
false eyelash
false eyelashes
falseface
false face
false fire
false flag
false-flag
false flagged
false-flagger
false flagger
false flagging
false flat
false flax
false foxglove
false friend
false fruit
falseful
false galena
false gavial
false gharial
false grip
false harmonic
falseheart
false-hearted
false-heartedly
false-heartedness
false hellebore
false hemp
false hermaphrodite
false holly
falsehood
false imprisonment
false ironwort
false jewel beetle
false keel
false key
false light
false lily of the valley
false loan
false loose smut
false mallow
false map turtle
false mastic
false mayweed
false measles
false memory
false-memory syndrome
false memory syndrome
false mermaid
false modesty
false monarch
false morel
false move
falsen
false negative
falseness
false nine
false northing
false note
false number 9
false owlet moth
false oxlip
false pimpernel
false pineapple
false plane tree
false plum anemone
false positive
false potato beetle
false pregnancy
false pretence
false pretense
false primary
false quarter
false Queen Anne's lace
false rail
false relation
false rhubarb
false rib
false saber-toothed cat
false sabre-toothed cat
false sandalwood
false scent
false scorpionfish
false sergeant
false sharing
false shower
false signal
false start
false step
false strawberry
false summit
false tack
false teeth
false trevally
false truffle
false vacuum
false vampire bat
false verbena
false violet
false violin spider
false widow
false witness
falsework
false works
falsie
falsifiable
falsification
falsify
falsish
falsism
falsity
falsy
feathery false lily of the valley
nonfalse
partial false friend
play someone false
put someone in a false position
ring false
rough-leaf false vervain
sail under false colors
shrubby false buttonweed
strike a false note
superfalse
tralse
true-false
true or false
true-or-false
unfalse
yellow false indigo