English → Latin
“lying” in Latin
mendāxmendacious (lying, untruthful, dishonest)fallāxdeceptive, deceitful; fallacious, spuriousvānusvain, empty, vacant, void; unsubstantial; groundless, baseless, meaningless, pointless, worthless, ineffectual, mindlessvāniloquuslying; boastful, bragging, vauntingfallōto deceive, beguile, trick, cheat, delude, ensnare, disappoint; to mistake, be mistaken, deceive oneself; to escape the fingōto shape, fashion, form, knead (dough); to touch, touch gently, stroke, stroke gently, handle; to adorn, dress, arrange
Riddle & Arnold A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon, 1864
lying
mendax (Vid: the proper word; ☞ in classical prose never of things): fallax (deceitful): vanus (empty, both of persons or things). (The words are found in this connection and order.) vanus et mendax, vanus et fallax: vaniloquus (bragging, of persons): falsus, fictus (false, pretended, of things): ☞ mendaciloquus is comic.
Quick answer
- What is the Latin word for lying?
- The usual Latin words for “lying” are mendāx, fallāx, vānus; also vāniloquus, fallō, fingō. The right choice depends on the sense; see the distinctions below.
Entry from J. E. Riddle & T. K. Arnold, A Copious and Critical English–Latin Lexicon (rev. C. Anthon, New York: Harper, 1864), digitised by Fergus J. P. Walsh, CC BY-SA 4.0; Latin markup adapted by latindictionary.co.