prevaricate
Prevaricate is a polite way to say that you have purposefully confused a situation by telling half-truths. The word comes from Latin praevaricatus, which literally means “to walk crookedly” a good metaphor for following the path of the habitual liar if there ever was one. Prevarication is intimately tied up with concept of evasion, when you don’t want to be nailed down to the facts or held to account.
People are
prevaricating; distracting, making listeners believe things that aren’t always factually true.
–
Salon
obfuscate
Briefings are often—as the Ziegler example underscores—a means of
obfuscating the truth.
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Slate
perfidy
Nicknamed "yahoo-yahoo" after the international web portal and search engine, this
perfidy has become a way of life for the young con-artists.
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U.S. News
mendacity
We all lie when cornered, but that doesn’t mean we exhibit mendacity or are mendacious. Mendacity is a character trait, something that defines you, which suggests that lying is an essential part of who you are. On both sides of the political aisle, it has become commonplace to suggest that someone you don’t like has a “casual relationship with the truth.” Someone who doesn’t take the truth seriously is showing mendacity.
Truth tellers are especially important and potentially vulnerable in an administration afflicted with serial
mendacity.
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The Washington Post
dissemble
Dissemble sounds like taking something apart, as if someone has said “disassemble” very fast. But rather than taking something apart, you can think of dissemble as constructing something, like a costume or a mask to hide one’s true self. The dissembler builds a disguise, either of fabric or words to conceal that which they don’t want exposed.
To
dissemble your feelings, to control your face, to do what everyone else was doing, was an instinctive reaction.
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1984
deceit
Deceit comes from Latin decipere, which means “to ensnare, take in, beguile, cheat.” Every lie is, in one way or another, an attempt to ensnare someone in a story, to beguile them into believing you. To practice deceit is to mislead, and it gets to the core of what lying is all about.
He displays “extreme narcissism,” the author argues, and he lies compulsively, with
deceit as “an ingrained way of life.”
–
The Washington Post
duplicity
Duplicity comes from a Latin root that means “double” and this is another very popular characterization of the liar — they are presenting two very different selves to the world, and it becomes immediately unclear which of the two, if any, can be trusted.
The mission of a news organization is to record accurately the course of events, including patterns of deception and
duplicity.
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The Washington Post
deception
The most fascinating element of the story is watching a daring act of
deception coalesce into the solid-seeming shape of history.
–
The Washington Post
fabrication
About a third of allegations of plagiarism,
fabrication, piracy and misconduct were upheld.
–
BBC
subterfuge
This word emphasizes the skill of the liar. To practice subterfuge one must be slick and stealthy, easily avoiding capture by the people you just “put one over on” who are now chasing you. If a student cheats on a test by writing the answers on their hand, it's not subterfuge. A conspiracy to supply an entire class with all the answers to all the tests for the semester is closer to subterfuge.
Why do you believe that
subterfuge and dishonesty are appropriate tactics to use on your wife?
–
Slate
fudge
You can fudge your height or weight on a form, or fudge your way through a pop quiz when you didn't do all the reading the night before, but you can't fudge your testimony in a court of law when you are under oath. The word for that is perjury.
Physically, teams will also get to see how much a player’s college
fudged height and weight numbers.
–
The Washington Times
falsehood
The First Amendment protects the right of free speech, but defamation laws protect the innocent against malicious
falsehoods.
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The Wall Street Journal
perjury
Court documents alleged that Hatfield falsely reported the reasons for Lewis’ retirement, leading to a felony
perjury charge against him.
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The Washington Times
fraud
I was afraid he would turn on me with disgust and accuse me of my
fraud, but he still seemed flattered.
–
Twilight
