Meaning & use

prevarication

noun·Advanced

The act of speaking evasively or misleadingly in order to avoid stating the truth.

See it in a sentence

The senator's prevarication only made reporters more suspicious about what he was hiding.

After months of prevarication, the company finally admitted the product was unsafe.

A note on using this word

Prevarication implies deliberately dodging the truth without outright lying, which distinguishes it from a direct falsehood.

Words with a similar meaning

evasionequivocation

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

honesty

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