perjury
Other forms: perjuries
Perjury is the act of deliberately lying under oath. A defendant in a murder trial commits perjury when he swears he never met the murder victim before, even though he had a two-year relationship with her.
Although the word perjury contains jury, members of the jury aren't likely to commit perjury, because they're not under oath and haven't sworn to be truthful. A witness in a trial can commit perjury by willfully lying about facts related to the case. Perjury isn't just a little white lie. It's a crime that can land the person who commits it in jail.
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criminal offense of making false statements under oathsynonyms: bearing false witness, lying under oath
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Vocabulary lists containing perjury
This scathing dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials is also an allegory of Senator Joseph McCarthy's pursuit of Communists in the 1950s.
Practice these words that contain the Latin roots jud, jur, and jus, meaning "law" or "justice."
Let's face it, we all (or at least most of us) lie. Whether you just want to spare someone's feelings or want to get away with something you really shouldn't be doing, people bend the truth on occasion. It's no surprise, then, that there are so many words that describe the telling of untruths. Whether the motivation is malicious or kindhearted, there is a nuanced way to describe it. Here are fifteen words to describe liars and the webs they spin. For the full article, check out Fudging It: A Lexicon of Lies