Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

ring false en · VERB

Pronunciation

Meanings

  1. (idiomatic) To seem to be incorrect, or implausible.
    • His excuse about his car breaking down again rings false to me.
    • But to some viewers, it rang false. They had seen this pattern before: show writes meme-able scene; scene becomes meme; instant marketing; profit. 2022 September 22, Jess Thomson, “‘Becoming a meme totally helps a show’: is TV being written with epic gifs in mind?”, in The Guardian:
    • Moments of potential transcendence, such as an afternoon constitutional through an expressionistic wonderland recalling the Fuji Velvia vividness of What Dreams May Come, ring false in light of this project's mercenary origins. 2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 24 May 2019:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
rang false Tense=Past lexicographic
rings false Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
ringing false Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
rung false Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic

Antonyms

ring true

Synonyms

ring hollow

Translations (3)

fi kuulostaa väärältä (to seem to be incorrect) · pl brzmieć niewiarygodnie (to seem to be incorrect) · fr sonner faux (to seem to be incorrect)