different between falsity vs falsify

English

Etymology

Corresponding to false +? -ity. From Middle French fausseté, Old French falseté, from Late Latin falsitas, from Latin falsus.

Pronunciation

Noun

falsity (countable and uncountable, plural falsities)

1. (countable) Something that is false; an untrue assertion.

   The belief that the world is flat is a falsity.

2. (uncountable) The characteristic of being untrue.
   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Part Two, Chapter 9, [1]

     The Party intellectual knows in which direction his memories must be altered; he therefore knows that he is playing tricks with reality; but by the exercise of DOUBLETHINK he also satisfies himself that reality is not violated. The process has to be conscious, or it would not be carried out with sufficient precision, but it also has to be unconscious, or it would bring with it a feeling of falsity and hence of guilt.

   The falsity of that statement is easily proven.

Usage notes

• Falsehood, Falseness, Falsity; untruth, fabrication, fiction. Instances may be quoted in abundance from old authors to show that the first three words are often strictly synonymous; but the modern tendency has been decidedly in favor of separating them, falsehood standing for the concrete thing, an intentional lie; falseness, for the quality of being guiltily false or treacherous: as, he is justly despised for his falseness to his oath; and falsity, for the quality of being false without blame: as, the falsity of reasoning. — The Century Dictionary, 1911.

Synonyms

• fabrication
• falsehood
• falseness
• fiction
• untruth
• See also Thesaurus:falsehood

Antonyms

• truth
• verity

Translations

References

• Webster, Noah (1828) , “falsity”, in An American Dictionary of the English Language
• falsity in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “falsity” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989)
• Random House Webster's Unabridged Electronic Dictionary (1987-1996)

English

Etymology

From French falsifier, from Late Latin falsific?re, present active infinitive of falsific? (“make false, corrupt, counterfeit, falsify”), from Latin falsificus, from falsus (“false”), corresponding to false +? -ify.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?f?ls?fa?/

Verb

falsify (third-person singular simple present falsifies, present participle falsifying, simple past and past participle falsified)

1. (transitive) To alter so as to make false; to make incorrect.

   • The Irish bards use to forge and falsify everything as they list, to please or displease any man.

2. (transitive) To misrepresent.
3. (transitive) To prove to be false.
   • 1730, Joseph Addison, The Evidences Of The Christian Religion

     Jews and Pagans united all their endeavors, under Julian the apostate, to baffle and falsify the prediction.

4. (transitive) To counterfeit; to forge.

5. (transitive, accounting) To show (an item of charge inserted in an account) to be wrong.
   • 1833, Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States

     It will allow the account to stand, with liberty to the plaintiff to surcharge and falsify it

   • 1912, Peyton Boyle, The Federal Reporter: Cases Argued and Determined in the Circuit District Courts of the United States

     The chancery rules governing proceedings to surcharge and falsify accounts are applicable only where an account has been stated between the parties, or where something equivalent thereto has been done.

6. (transitive, obsolete) To baffle or escape.
   • a. 1680, Samuel Butler, Fragments of an intended second part of the foregoing satire

     For disputants (as swordsmen use to fence / With blunted foyles) engage with blunted sense; / And as th' are wont to falsify a blow, / Use nothing else to pass upon a foe […]

7. (transitive, obsolete) To violate; to break by falsehood.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• falsify in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• falsify in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.