False means not matching the facts. A false statement, false information, true or false.
It also means artificial: false teeth, a false beard, a false ceiling. And it means treacherous, in older and literary use: a false friend. Note the technical phrase false friend in language learning, meaning a word that looks like one in your own language and means something else — English actual and Spanish actual, for instance. Also false alarm, false start and false economy, all fixed phrases, and the last meaning a saving that costs more in the end.
1adjectivefalseNot true; not matching the facts.
“The statement was false and they knew it.”
synonyms: untrue, incorrect, wrong
2adjectiveartificialArtificial rather than natural.
“The whole ceiling is false and hides the pipes.”
3adjectiveintendedIntended to deceive.
“He gave a false name at the desk.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
false is a quality of untruth.
Also accepted in games: untrue
Latin falsus is the past participle of fallere, to deceive — the same verb behind fail, fault and fallacy. Something false has deceived somebody, which is a stronger claim than merely being wrong.
Latin
falsus — counterfeit, false; falsehood
Old English
fals — false; counterfeit; fraudulent; wrong; mistaken
Middle English
false
English, today
false
Built from
From Middle English false, fals, from Old English fals (“false; counterfeit; fraudulent; wrong; mistaken”), from Latin falsus (“counterfeit, false; falsehood”), perfect passive participle of fallō (“deceive”). Reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman - and Old French fals, faus. Compare Scots fals, false, stq falsk, German falsch, Dutch vals, Swedish - and Danish falsk; all from Latin falsus. Displaced native Middle English les, lese, from Old English lēas (“false”); See lease, leasing. a doublet of faux. The verb is from Middle English falsen, falsien, from Old French falser, from Latin falsō (“falsify”), itself also from falsus; compare French fausser (“to falsify, to distort”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA