un ‧ true /ʌnˈtruː/ BrE AmE adjective
[ Word Family: adverb : ↑ truly , ↑ truthfully ≠ ↑ untruthfully , ↑ true ; noun : ↑ truth ≠ ↑ untruth , ↑ truthfulness ; adjective : ↑ true ≠ ↑ untrue , ↑ truthful ≠ ↑ untruthful ]
1 . not based on facts that are correct SYN false :
allegations that are totally untrue
It’s untrue to say that the situation has not changed.
REGISTER
In everyday English, people usually say something is not true rather than untrue :
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It’s not true to say nothing has changed.
2 . literary someone who is untrue to their husband, wife etc is not faithful to them SYN unfaithful
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THESAURUS
▪ untrue [not usually before noun] not true, because the person does not know the facts, or because they are lying:
It is untrue that the college broke the terms of the contract.
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The allegations are completely untrue.
▪ false not true and not based on the facts, or not the real one:
The article gives a totally false impression of life in Russia today.
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He gave a false name and address to the police.
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Decide whether these statements are true or false.
▪ something is not the case if what someone says or believes is happening is not the case, it is not happening and what they say or believe is not true:
Recent reports suggest that violent crime is increasing, but this is simply not the case.
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People think there’s an endless supply of fish, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
▪ misleading a misleading statement or piece of information makes people believe something that is not true, especially because it does not give all the facts:
The holiday brochure is deliberately misleading, because the hotels it shows are not the ones you actually stay in.
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These statistics give a misleading impression of what is happening to the economy.
▪ trumped-up trumped-up charges, accusations, evidence etc use information that is not true in order to make someone seem guilty of doing something wrong:
He had been arrested by the secret police on trumped-up charges of spying.
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Zola believed that the case against Dreyfus was trumped-up and utterly false.
■ something that is untrue
▪ myth something a lot of people believe because they want to believe it, not because it is based on fact:
The first myth about motherhood is that new mothers instantly fall in love with their babies.
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Contrary to popular myth, our streets are much safer now than they were 100 years ago.
▪ illusion a belief or idea that is false, especially a belief in something good about yourself or about the situation you are in:
Alcohol gives people the illusion of being witty and confident.
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People bought the land under the illusion that the value would increase.
▪ misconception an idea that is not true but which people believe because they do not have all the facts, or they have not properly understood the situation:
It’s a common misconception that vaccinations given in childhood last for life.
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Employers seem to share the general misconception that young people are more efficient than older workers.
▪ delusion a completely mistaken idea, which affects your behaviour and what you decide to do:
He began to suffer from paranoid delusions.
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Many people labour under the delusion (=have the delusion) that anything which says ‘natural ingredients’ on the label must be harmless.
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the delusion that women control most of the world' s wealth and power
▪ fallacy if you say that something is a fallacy, you mean that it is completely wrong to believe that it is true:
The idea that a good night’s sleep will cure everything is a complete fallacy.
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It’s a fallacy that all fat people are fat simply because they eat too much.