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Mendacious

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(pronounced men-day-shus)  adjective

Definition

1. being untruthful; lying (usually as a habit); showing a pattern of deception or falsehood. 2. false; untrue.

Other Forms

Mendacity   (pronounced men-das-ih-tee)   noun   [Definition: 1. the quality or state of being mendacious. 2. a lie; a falsehood.]

Main Example

• The Dept. of Labor’s most recent jobs report, released Friday, March 10, was surprisingly good. Sure enough, the White House basked in its glow and President Trump let it be known that the economic optimism he had helped engender was an underlying factor. But, recall that in the months preceding last year’s general election, then candidate Trump had trashed the government’s job reports by calling them “phony.” So why did Trump label those earlier reports a mendacity? Because high employment numbers while Obama was president were a contradiction to Trumps’ claim that the U.S. economy was in a downward spiral.

Workplace Examples

• If you want the real picture of what’s going on in the fab shop, talk to Al. He’s a straight shooter--no lies, no bending the truth, no mendacity whatsoever.
• It’s hard to believe anything Mike says. He is so obsessed with his image, and how much money he is going to make this year...he’s one mendacious guy. Not to be trusted.

Other Examples

• a colleague saying: “My son, a new grad, is looking for a job, but he doesn’t want to work for an auto dealership. Right or wrong, he believes that the selling and financing of cars is inescapably tinged with mendacity.”
• a “60 Minutes II” segment charging that some school districts were issuing mendacious reports, claiming dropout rates much lower than what was actually the case
• the mendacious regime in North Korea, constantly feeding its people a diet of lies and falsehoods
• the culture of mendacity in Wall Street which was partially responsible for the financial crisis of 2007-2009
• the controversial Ahmed Chalabi: Several prominent Americans have always claimed that the late Iraqi leader was an honorable man. But, according to the CIA and numerous leading senators from both parties, Chalabi was unquestionably mendacious, and that by planting false intelligence on Saddam’s WMDs, he manipulated the U.S. into invading Iraq.

© 2017 V.J. Singal
No part of this may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the author.

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