Synonyms for apocryphal
- adjective
All synonyms
Adjective
1. Spurious — of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical
Other
unverified, anecdotal, doubtful, questionable, unauthenticated, uncanonical, non-canon slang
Definitions
- adj. 1
Of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.
Many scholars consider the stories of the monk Teilo to be apocryphal.
Related words
- Word family
- apocryphally
Example sentences
- fictitious All the characters in this drama are fictitious.
- spurious His books were filled with spurious arguments.
- questionable There are many questionable points in this ledger.
- doubtful It's doubtful whether Tom will be able to do that.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| apocryphal | rising | |
| fictitious | steady | |
| spurious | falling | |
| unauthentic | steady | |
| questionable | falling |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 5 letters
- false1
- 8 letters
- doubtful2, spurious3
- 9 letters
- anecdotal4
- 10 letters
- fictitious3, unverified4, allonymous
- 11 letters
- unauthentic4, uncanonical
- 12 letters
- questionable4
- 15 letters
- unauthenticated
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (doubtful2 = 2 syllables).