Dictionary

untruism en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Northern-California) audio

Etymology

Blend of untrue + truism. By surface analysis, un- + true + -ism.

Meanings

1. Something that is not true; a false statement.
   • Aristotle's implicit totalitarianism rests ultimately on a questionable inference from a metaphysical untruism. 2005, Richard Kraut, Steven Skultety, Aristotle's Politics, page 201
   • 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. 1878, Anthony Trollope, The warden and Barchester Towers: Volume 1, page 262
   • This fickle oscillation is often precipitated by the chameleon-like quality of 'untruisms': 'An untruism is an ambiguous sentence 1993, Roy Sorenson, Pseudo-Problems, page 118
   • 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. 1982, Jonathan Barnes, The Presocratic Philosophers, page 132

Forms

Synonyms

falsehood