uh-POK-rih-ful

Definition

(adjective) Of doubtful authenticity; widely circulated but almost certainly not true or not based in fact.

Example

The tale of Washington chopping down the cherry tree is almost certainly apocryphal — a moral fable dressed up as biography and repeated until it became fact.

Word Origin

Apocryphal derives from the Greek apokryphos, meaning “hidden” or “obscure,” from apokryptein — “to hide away” — built from apo- (“away”) and kryptein (“to hide”). It entered English through the ecclesiastical Latin apocrypha, referring to biblical texts excluded from the official canon — writings considered of uncertain or dubious origin. From there it broadened into its modern sense of any story or claim whose authenticity is doubtful despite its wide circulation.