Falsehood, n.
Etymology: [False + -hood]
1. Want of truth or accuracy; an untrue assertion or representation; error; misrepresentation; falsity. Though it be a lie in the clock, it is but a falsehood in the hand of the dial when pointing at a wrong hour, if rightly following the direction of the wheel which moveth it. Fuller.
2. A deliberate intentional assertion of what is known to be untrue; a departure from moral integrity; a lie.
3. Treachery; deceit; perfidy; unfaithfulness. Betrayed by falsehood of his guard. Shak.
4. A counterfeit; a false appearance; an imposture. For his molten image is falsehood. Jer. x. 14. No falsehood can endure Touch of celestial temper. Milton.
1 more senses
Syn. -- Falsity; lie; untruth; fiction; fabrication. See Falsity.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for falsehood; he lists it under deception, fiction.
Where he writes about it:
A lie, lying, or falsehood, is the uttering of what one knows to be false with intent to deceive. — from deception
Falsehood and lying are in utterance; deceit and deception may be merely in act or implication. — from deception
A fabrication is designed to deceive; it is a less odious word than falsehood, but is really stronger, as a falsehood may be a sudden unpremeditated statement, while a fabrication is a series of statements carefully studied and fitted together in order to deceive; the falsehood is all false; the fabrication may mingle the true with the false. — from fiction