Vocabulary and Expressions Related to Lying

Vocabulary and Expressions Related to Lying

Hello, English learners 👋 Welcome to today’s vocabulary lesson. Lying and dishonesty are uncomfortable topics, but they are an unavoidable part of real-life communication — and therefore an important part of language learning. People lie for many reasons: to avoid punishment, to protect their reputation, to spare someone’s feelings, or sometimes even to protect others from harm. To talk about honesty, trust, exaggeration, and deception clearly and naturally, English offers a rich range of vocabulary and expressions. In this lesson, you’ll learn useful nouns, verbs, collocations, and idioms related to lying, all explained with clear meanings and natural example sentences.

General Nouns for Lies and Deception

Deceit

Meaning: the act of deliberately hiding or misrepresenting the truth. (Adjective: deceitful)

• His deceit was eventually uncovered.
• She was known for her deceitful behaviour.

Falsehood

Meaning: something that is untrue; a lie.

• His statement was a blatant falsehood.
• She was caught repeating falsehoods during the interview.

Fabrication

Meaning: a story or piece of information that has been completely invented

• The article turned out to be a total fabrication.
• His alibi was a clever fabrication, but the police saw through it.

Disinformation

Meaning: false information spread deliberately in order to deceive.

• The campaign aimed to stop the spread of disinformation online.
• Disinformation can seriously damage public trust.

Falsification

Meaning: the deliberate alteration or invention of information, documents, or data.

• The scientist was dismissed for falsification of research results.
• The audit revealed falsification of financial records.

Informal Words for Lies

Fib

Meaning: a small or harmless lie.

• She told a little fib about her age.
• He fibbed about the reason he was late.

Whopper

Meaning: a very big or outrageous lie.

• He told a whopper about winning the lottery.
• That story is such a whopper that no one believes it.

Hogwash

Meaning: nonsense or something clearly untrue.

• The claim that the earth is flat is complete hogwash.
• Most of the article was pure hogwash.

Idioms and Expressions about Lying

Pull the wool over someone’s eyes

Meaning: to deceive someone.

• He tried to pull the wool over his boss’s eyes.
• Don’t let appearances pull the wool over your eyes.

Bend the truth

Meaning: to change the truth slightly.

• He bent the truth to make the story sound better.
• She tends to bend the truth about her achievements.

Stretch the truth

Meaning: to exaggerate facts.

• Paul sometimes stretches the truth to impress people.
• She stretched the truth about meeting the celebrity.

White lie

Meaning: a small, harmless lie told to avoid hurting someone.

• He told a white lie to spare her feelings.
• Parents often tell white lies to young children.

Living a lie

Meaning: pretending something is true when it is not.

• She could no longer live a lie and decided to be honest.
• Their relationship was built on deceit — they were living a lie.

Lie through your teeth

Meaning: to tell an obvious lie without guilt.

• He lied through his teeth despite the evidence.
• She lied through her teeth to avoid responsibility.

Collocations with Lie

Blatant lie

Meaning: an obvious and shameless lie.

• It was a blatant lie that fooled no one.
• The journalist exposed the politician’s blatant lie.

Outright lie

Meaning: a completely false statement.

• He told an outright lie about the document.
• The company issued an outright lie in its statement.

A pack of lies

Meaning: a collection of lies told together.

• His explanation was a pack of lies.
• The report was dismissed as a pack of lies.

Spread lies

Meaning: to intentionally share false information.

• He was accused of spreading lies about his colleague.
• The website is known for spreading lies.

Detect a lie

Meaning: to recognise that someone is not telling the truth.

• She can usually detect a lie immediately.
• Parents are good at detecting lies.

Make something up

Meaning: to invent a story or excuse.

• He made something up to explain his lateness.
• She made up a story to avoid answering the question.

Final Thoughts

Understanding vocabulary and expressions related to lying allows you to discuss honesty, trust, exaggeration, and deception with precision and confidence. Many of these words and idioms appear frequently in news articles, conversations, films, and exam texts, especially at B2–C1 level.

As always, try learning them in context, and practise using just a few at a time in your own speaking and writing.

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