apocryphal means of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha. It carries an Arena rating of 1857, earned across 17 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, apocryphal ranks #1,036 of 17,113 for Most Elegant Words, #1,525 of 17,130 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,655 of 17,111 for Most Sublime Words, #2,689 of 17,125 for Most Incisive Words.
apocryphal is pronounced /əˈpɒkɹɪfəl/.
Why “apocryphal” is a great word
Of doubtful authenticity, especially in reference to a widely circulated story or claim. From the Late Latin apocryphus and Greek apókryphos ("hidden, obscure"), from apokryptein ("to hide away"), first attested in English in the 1580s. Unlike "canonical" (which confers authority) or "authenticated" (which bears the stamp of verification), apocryphal describes the liminal territory where narrative outpaces evidence. It is the sermon George Washington never delivered, the deathbed confession that cannot be traced, the quote that fits too neatly to be true—the story that improves with each retelling precisely because no archive can contain it, thriving in the fertile ground between what we wish had happened and what the record allows.
adj
- Of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.e.g.“[…] ‘Tobit and his dog baith are altogether heathenish and apocryphal, and none but a prelatist or a papist would draw them into question. I doubt I hae been mista'en in you, friend.’”
- Of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.e.g.“Many scholars consider the stories of the monk Teilo to be apocryphal.”
- Of dubious veracity; of questionable accuracy or truthfulness; anecdotal or in the nature of an urban legend.e.g.“There is an apocryphal tale of a little boy plugging the dike with his finger.”
- Of or relating to the Apocrypha.
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