prevarication

Meaning

1. (countable, uncountable) Evasion of the truth.
2. (archaic, countable, uncountable) Deviation from what is right or correct.
3. (countable, uncountable) A secret abuse in the exercise of a public office.
4. (Ancient-Rome, countable, historical, uncountable) The collusion of an informer with the defendant, for the purpose of making a sham prosecution.
5. (countable, uncountable) A false or deceitful seeming to undertake a thing for the purpose of defeating or destroying it.

Synonyms

lie

evasion

falsehood

equivocation

quibbling

lying

untruth

evasiveness

falsification

invention

fabrication

fiction

inaccuracy

inexactness

irrelevance

loophole

misrepresentation

perverseness

perversion

quibble

quirk

shift

stall

subterfuge

tergiversation

torsion

untruthfulness

pettifoggery

mistatement

aberrance

mistruth

avoidance

chicanery

deception

dishonesty

distortion

double-dealing

elusion

excuse

falsity

fib

Translations

mentida

mentira

mentira

mensonge

bugia

Ausflucht

histoires

bobard

menterie

craque

ψέμμα

كذب

Lüge

boniment

Pronounced as (IPA)

/pɹɪˌvæɹɪˈkeɪʃən/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin praevāricātiō (“collusion with an opponent; duplicity, deceit; violation of duty, transgression”, literally “stepping out of line”), from praevāricor (“to walk crookedly; go astray; transgress”) + -tās. The virtually obsolete sense of deviation or transgression may have been influenced by an earlier stage of borrowing via Middle English prevaricacioun, prevaricacion (“deviation from the law; transgression”) from Anglo-Norman prevaricaciun (“transgression, violation of correct conduct”).