untrue

What it means

1. False; not true.

   She says that I stole her necklace, but that's completely untrue.

   3 more examples

   "I know it is true, for an untrue word never passed her lips."

   1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 11

   This statement is untrue.

   2004, George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 264

   The service aggressively maintained its position until I produced evidence proving it was untrue - including a recording of one of the calls with a senior MI5 officer.

   2025 July 6, Daniel De Simone, “How MI5 piled falsehood on falsehood in court in the case of a spy who abused women”, in BBC News, retrieved 06 Jul 2025

   Synonyms: false, inaccurate, incorrect, unveridical, wrong · Antonyms: true

2. Not faithful or loyal.

   Let me be the one you come running to / I'll never be untrue

   1971, “Let's Stay Together”, performed by Al Green

   2 more examples

   Now you say you're sorry / For being so untrue / Well, you can cry me a river, cry me a river

   1953, Arthur Hamilton, “Cry Me a River”

   Tonight you didn't come / And my senses all were reeling / I had a certain scary feeling you'd been untrue

   2019, “The Night You Didn't Come”, in Becoming Peter Ivers, performed by Peter Ivers

   Synonyms: false, perfidious, unfaithful, booky, dastardly, disleal, disloyal, double-crossing · Antonyms: faithful

In a sentence

She says that I stole her necklace, but that's completely untrue.

Where it comes from

1. Proto-Indo-European*né
2. Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
3. Proto-Germanic*un-
4. Proto-Indo-European*drewH-
5. Proto-Germanic*triwwiz
6. Proto-Germanic*untriwwiz
7. Proto-West Germanic*untriuwī
8. Old Englishuntrīewe
9. Middle Englishuntrewe
10. Englishuntrue

From Middle English untrewe, from Old English untrīewe, from Proto-West Germanic *untriuwī, from Proto-Germanic *untriwwiz. Equivalent to un- + true.