| Main Entry: | |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | questionable; fake |
| Synonyms: | counterfeit, doubtful, dubious, equivocal, false, fictitious, inaccurate, mythical, spurious, unauthenticated, ungenuine, unsubstantiated, untrue, unverified, wrong |
| Antonyms: | authentic, doubtless, real, true |
| Main Entry: | false |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | wrong, made up |
| Synonyms: | apocryphal, beguiling, bogus, casuistic, concocted, contrary to fact, cooked-up, counterfactual, deceitful, deceiving, delusive, dishonest, distorted, erroneous, ersatz*, fake, fallacious, fanciful, faulty, fictitious, fishy, fraudulent, illusive, imaginary, improper, inaccurate, incorrect, inexact, invalid, lying, mendacious, misleading, misrepresentative, mistaken, off the mark, phony, sham, sophistical, specious, spurious, trumped up, unfounded, unreal, unsound, untrue, untruthful |
| Notes: | fallacious means intended to deceive; fallible means liable to make a mistake or to be inaccurate or erroneous; false means not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality, or deliberately deceptive, or not genuine or real |
| Antonyms: | accurate, actual, correct, factual, genuine, known, precise, real, right, substantiated, true, valid |
| Main Entry: | fictitious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | untrue, made-up |
| Synonyms: | apocryphal, artificial, assumed, bogus*, chimerical, concocted, cooked-up, counterfeit, created, deceptive, delusive, delusory, dishonest, ersatz*, fabricated, factitious, fake, faked, false, fanciful, fantastic, fashioned, feigned, fictional, fictive, figmental, hyped up, illusory, imaginary, imagined, improvised, invented, made, make-believe, misleading, mock, mythical, phony, queer, romantic, sham*, simulated, spurious, suppositious, supposititious, synthetic, trumped-up, unreal |
| Notes: | factitious refers to 'made up, contrived' as opposed to what is genuine, while fictitious is 'made up, contrived' as opposed to what is real; a factitious story might be designed to serve a purpose, but a fictitious story is intended to deceive fictional is pertaining to or found in fiction; fictitious is 'false, fraudulent' or 'non-existent' |
| Antonyms: | actual, certain, confirmed, factual, genuine, proven, real, sincere, sure, true, truthful |
| Main Entry: | imaginary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fictitious, invented |
| Synonyms: | abstract, apocryphal, apparitional, assumed, chimerical, deceptive, delusive, dreamed-up, dreamlike, dreamy, fabulous, fancied, fanciful, fantastic, fictional, figmental, fool's paradise, hallucinatory, hypothetical, ideal, illusive, illusory, imaginative, imagined, legendary, made-up, mythological, nonexistent, notional, phantasmal, phantasmic, quixotic, shadowy, spectral, supposed, supposititious, theoretical, trumped up, unreal, unsubstantial, visionary, whimsical |
| Notes: | imaginary means not based on fact while imaginative means marked by independence and creativity in thought or action |
| Antonyms: | existing, factual, genuine, physical, real, substantial, true |
| Main Entry: | legendary |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | fictitious but well known |
| Synonyms: | allegorical, apocryphal, created, customary, doubtful, dubious, fabled, fabricated, fabulous, fanciful, figmental, handed-down, imaginary, imaginative, improbable, invented, mythical, mythological, related, romantic, storied, told, traditional, unhistoric, unhistorical, unreal, unverifiable |
| Antonyms: | factual, real, true |
| Main Entry: | questionable |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | doubtful, uncertain |
| Synonyms: | ambiguous, apocryphal, arguable, contingent, controversial, controvertible, cryptic, debatable, disputable, dubious, dubitable, enigmatic, equivocal, fishy, hard to believe, hypothetical, iffy, indecisive, indefinite, indeterminate, moot, mysterious, obscure, occult, open to doubt, open to question, oracular, paradoxical, problematic, problematical, provisional, shady, suspect, suspicious, unconfirmed, undefined, under advisement, under examination, unproven, unreliable, unsettled, vague |
| Notes: | questionable means open to doubt, disagreement, or challenge - or of dubious morality, honesty, or respectability; questioning (adjective) means showing curiosity or inquiring about - or (noun) an inquiry or interrogation |
| Antonyms: | certain, definite, indisputable, proven, sure, undoubted, unquestionable |
| Main Entry: | spurious |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | counterfeit, fake |
| Synonyms: | affected, apocryphal, artificial, assumed, bastard*, bent, bogus, bum, contrived, deceitful, deceptive, dummy*, ersatz, faked, false, feigned, forged, framed, illegitimate, imitation, make-believe, mock, phony, pirate, pretend, pretended, pseudo*, put-on, sham*, simulated, specious, substitute, unauthentic, ungenuine, unreal |
| Antonyms: | authentic, genuine, real, true |
| Main Entry: | untrue |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | dishonest |
| Synonyms: | apocryphal, cheating, counterfactual, deceitful, deceptive, delusive, deviant, disloyal, dissembling, distorted, erroneous, faithless, fallacious, false, fictitious, forsworn, hollow, imprecise, inaccurate, inconstant, incorrect, inexact, lying, meretricious, misleading, mistaken, off*, out of line, perfidious, perjured, prevaricating, recreant, sham*, specious, spurious, traitorous, treacherous, two-faced, unfaithful, unloyal, unsound, untrustworthy, untruthful, wide, wrong |
| Antonyms: | faithful, honest, true |
| Main Entry: | falsified |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | demonstrated to be false |
| Synonyms: | apocryphal, pseudepigraphic, pseudological |