Definition
In legal usage, "untrue" describes a statement or representation that is inaccurate or contrary to fact. The critical legal distinction is that a statement may be untrue without being willfully false — that is, a speaker may make an untrue statement through honest mistake, negligence, or inadvertence rather than deliberate deception. This separates "untrue" from terms like "false," which in legal contexts often carries a connotation of conscious misstatement, and from "fraudulent," which requires intent to deceive.
The distinction matters most in the law of misrepresentation, where liability can attach to untrue statements that fall short of fraud, and in statutory contexts — such as securities regulation — where "untrue statement of material fact" is a term of art that does not require proof of scienter at every level of liability.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): False; not true. Also: not faithful or loyal.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not true; false; contrary to the fact. Also not faithful; inconstant; disloyal.
In ordinary English, "untrue" and "false" are used interchangeably, and both carry some implication of knowing departure from reality. Legal usage deliberately decouples "untrue" from that implication: a statement can be untrue — and legally actionable — without the speaker having known it was wrong. Researchers should resist reading moral or intentional content into the word when it appears in legal instruments or statutes.
Common Confusion
UNTRUE vs. FALSE vs. FRAUDULENT: In common speech these words overlap heavily. In law they occupy distinct positions along a spectrum of culpability. "Untrue" indicates objective inaccuracy, without regard to the speaker's state of mind. "False" may imply conscious or reckless departure from truth, depending on context. "Fraudulent" adds a requirement of intent to deceive and typically requires that the speaker knew the statement was wrong or acted with reckless disregard for its truth. When reading older pleadings, statutes, or instruments, care is needed: courts and drafters have not always used these words with perfect consistency, and the operative meaning in any given document depends on context and jurisdiction.
Why It Matters in Research
The Bouvier gloss — "prima facie inaccurate, but not necessarily wilfully false" — is compact but significant. It anchors the word in an objective rather than a subjective standard, and researchers encountering "untrue" in historical contracts, warranty clauses, prospectuses, or pleadings should read it with that in mind.
In securities law research, "untrue statement of material fact" is a recurring statutory phrase. Because liability under certain provisions does not require proof of fraudulent intent, the word "untrue" was chosen precisely to signal that objective inaccuracy, not willfulness, triggers the statutory remedy. Tracing how courts have interpreted that phrase across time requires keeping the untrue/false/fraudulent distinction clearly in view.
In warranty and contract research, older instruments frequently use "true and correct" or warrant that representations "are not untrue." These formulations were sometimes drafted to import a strict-liability standard rather than a fraud standard — a trap for researchers who assume that any misrepresentation claim requires proof of intent.
In pleading and indictment research, historical practice sometimes used "untrue" as a more neutral word where "false" might have carried connotations requiring additional proof. Identifying which standard the pleader intended requires looking at the surrounding language and the procedural context.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's entry is unusually brief — a single sentence with a case citation to 8 B. & S. 929 (Best & Smith's Queen's Bench Reports). The core contribution is the prima facie / willfully false distinction, which tracks the doctrinal function of the word accurately. Bouvier does not develop the distinction further or explore the relationship to fraud or misrepresentation doctrine.
Webster's 1913 is unhelpful for legal research precisely because it treats "untrue" and "false" as synonyms, collapsing the distinction that legal usage preserves. The secondary meaning — "not faithful; disloyal" — is largely absent from legal usage of the term, though it survives in older moral and quasi-legal contexts (breach of oath, breach of fealty) where "untrue" meant faithless.
Neither dictionary captures the term's modern statutory role in securities and consumer protection law, where "untrue statement" has become a defined term of art. Researchers working in those areas should not rely on either Bouvier or Webster as authoritative guides to current meaning.
Jurisdictional Note
While the core distinction between "untrue" and "willfully false" is broadly recognized, the practical consequences of the distinction vary by jurisdiction and statutory scheme. Federal securities law has developed the most elaborate body of doctrine around "untrue statement of material fact." State misrepresentation law varies considerably in how it treats innocent versus negligent versus fraudulent untrue statements.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Fraud
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Misrepresentation