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PlainSpell

falsehood

UK /ˈfɒlsˌhʊd/noun

falsehood is spelled F-A-L-S-E-H-O-O-D: 9 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,974th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, falsehood means “The property of being false” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of falsehood is falsehoods.

How many letters and syllables are in falsehood?

Letters9: F-A-L-S-E-H-O-O-D
Syllables2 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 1 million words; the 31,974th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is falsehood?

Falsehood appears about once in every 1 million words in written English, the 31,974th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce falsehood?

  • UK /ˈfɒlsˌhʊd/

Falsehood has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-falsehood.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of falsehood

  • falsehoods plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does falsehood mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The property of being false.

  2. 2

    A false statement, especially an intentional one; a lie.

    Don't tell falsehoods.

  3. 3

    archaicrareMendacity, deceitfulness; the trait of lying.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Falsehood in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfausseté (state of being false), mensonge, contrevérité (false statement)
GermanUnwahrheit, Falschheit (state of being false), Lüge, unwahre Behauptung (false statement), Falschsein (trait of a person)
Portuguesefalsidade (state of being false)
Spanishfalimiento (false statement)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does falsehood come from?

From Middle English falshede, from false + -hede, equivalent to false + -hood.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after falsehood