myth

• POS: Noun

CIDE DICTIONARY

myth, n. [Gr. my^qos myth, fable, tale, talk, speech: cf. F. mythe.].

•  A story of great but unknown age which originally embodied a belief regarding some fact or phenomenon of experience, and in which often the forces of nature and of the soul are personified; an ancient legend of a god, a hero, the origin of a race, etc.; a wonder story of prehistoric origin; a popular fable which is, or has been, received as historical.  [1913 Webster]
•  A person or thing existing only in imagination, or whose actual existence is not verifiable.  [1913 Webster]

  "As for Mrs. Primmins's bones, they had been myths these twenty years."  [1913 Webster]

Myth history, history made of, or mixed with, myths.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

myth, n.
1 a traditional narrative usu. involving supernatural or imaginary persons and embodying popular ideas on natural or social phenomena etc.
2 such narratives collectively.
3 a widely held but false notion.
4 a fictitious person, thing, or idea.
5 an allegory (the Platonic myth).

Derivative

mythic adj. mythical adj. mythically adv.

Etymology

mod.L mythus f. LL mythos f. Gk muthos

THESAURUS

myth

Marchen, Mishnah, Spiritus Mundi, Sunna, Talmud, Western, Western story, Westerner, adventure story, allegory, ancient wisdom, apologue, apparition, archetypal myth, archetypal pattern, bedtime story, brainchild, bubble, canard, chimera, cock-and-bull story, common law, concoction, creation, custom, delirium, detective story, eidolon, epic, extravaganza, fable, fabliau, fabrication, fairy tale, falsehood, fancy, fantasque, fantasy, fib, fiction, figment, folk motif, folk story, folklore, folktale, forgery, gest, ghost story, hallucination, history, horse opera, idle fancy, illusion, imagery, imagination, imagining, immemorial usage, insubstantial image, invention, legend, lie, lore, love story, maggot, make-believe, mystery, mystery story, mythology, mythos, nursery tale, parable, phantasm, phantom, prevarication, racial memory, romance, saga, science fiction, shocker, sick fancy, space fiction, space opera, story, suspense story, tall tale, thick-coming fancies, thriller, tradition, traditionalism, traditionality, trip, untruth, vapor, vision, whim, whimsy, whodunit, whopper, wildest dreams, work of fiction

ROGET THESAURUS

myth

Imagination

N imagination, originality, invention, fancy, inspiration, verve, warm imagination, heated imagination, excited imagination, sanguine imagination, ardent imagination, fiery imagination, boiling imagination, wild imagination, bold imagination, daring imagination, playful imagination, lively imagination, fertile imagination, fancy, mind's eye, such stuff as dreams are made of, ideality, idealism, romanticism, utopianism, castle-building, dreaming, phrensy, frenzy, ecstasy, extasy, calenture, reverie, trance, day dream, golden dream, somnambulism, conception, Vorstellung, excogitation, a fine frenzy, cloudland, dreamland, flight of fancy, fumes of fancy, thick coming fancies, creation of the brain, coinage of the brain, imagery, conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera, phantasm, phantasy, fantasy, fancy, whim, whimsey, whimsy, vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest, geste, extravaganza, air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare, flying Dutchman, great sea serpent, man in the moon, castle in the air, pipe dream, pie-in-the-sky, chateau en Espagne, Utopia, Atlantis, happy valley, millennium, fairyland, land of Prester John, kindgom of Micomicon, work of fiction, Arabian nights, le pot au lait, dream of Alnashar, illusion, phantom, Fata Morgana, vapor, stretch of the imagination, mythogenesis, idealist, romanticist, visionary, mopus, romancer, dreamer, somnambulist, rhapsodist, castle-buildier, fanciful projector, imagined, ben trovato, air drawn, airbuilt, imagining, imaginative, original, inventive, creative, fertile, romantic, high flown, flighty, extravagant, fanatic, enthusiastic, unrealistic, Utopian, Quixotic, ideal, unreal, in the clouds, in nubibus, unsubsantial, illusory, fabulous, legendary, mythical, mythic, mythological, chimerical, imaginary, visionary, notional, fancy, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, whimsical, fairy, fairy-like, gestic, a change came o'er the spirit of my dream, aegri somnia vana, dolphinum appingit sylvis in fluctibus aprum, fancy light from fancy caught, imagination rules the world, l'imagination gallope, le jugement ne va que le pas, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore, tous songes sont mensonges, Wahrheil und Dichtung, DIVISION II COMMUNICATION OF IDEAS.

Untruth

N untruth, falsehood, lie, story, thing that is not, fib, bounce, crammer, taradiddle, whopper, jhuth, forgery, fabrication, invention, misstatement, misrepresentation, perversion, falsification, gloss, suggestio falsi, exaggeration, invention, fabrication, fiction, fable, nursery tale, romance, absurd story, untrue story, false story, trumped up story, trumped up statement, thing devised by the enemy, canard, shave, sell, hum, traveler's tale, Canterbury tale, cock and bull story, fairy tale, fake, claptrap, press agent's yarn, puff, puffery (exaggeration), myth, moonshine, bosh, all my eye and Betty Martin, mare's nest, farce, irony, half truth, white lie, pious fraud, mental reservation, pretense, pretext, false plea, subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe, sham, profession, empty words, Judas kiss, disguise, untrue, false, phony, trumped up, void of foundation, without- foundation, fictive, far from the truth, false as dicer's oaths, unfounded, ben trovato, invented, fabulous, fabricated, forged, fictitious, factitious, supposititious, surreptitious, elusory, illusory, ironical, soi-disant, se non e vero e ben trovato, where none is meant that meets the ear.