mentir

From Latin mentīrī.

mentir (first-person singular indicative present mento, past participle mentíu)

1. to lie (tell an intentional untruth)

• mentira
• mente

Inherited from Latin mentīrī.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [mənˈti]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [menˈtiɾ]

• Audio:

  (file)

mentir (first-person singular present menteixo or mento, first-person singular preterite mentí, past participle mentit); root stress: (Central, Valencia, Balearic) /e/

1. to lie (say something untrue)

• desmentir

• mentida
• mentider
• mentidor
• ment

• “mentir”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “mentir”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025.
• “mentir” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “mentir” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Plural form of Old Norse ment (education, art).

• IPA^(key): [ˈmɛn̥tɪɹ]

mentir f pl (plurale tantum, genitive plural menta)

1. art, capability, skill
2. (spiritual) culture
3. (archaic) wizardry, witchcraft
4. (archaic) power

Inherited from Middle French mentir, from Old French mentir, from Latin mentīrī.

• IPA^(key): /mɑ̃.tiʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iʁ

mentir

1. (intransitive) to lie (say something untrue)

   mentir à quelqu'un sur quelque chose ― to lie to someone about something

   mentir par omission ― to lie by omission

   mentir comme on respire ― to lie like a cheap rug (literally, “to lie like one breathes”)

   Il ne faut pas se mentir : l'entreprise s'annonce difficile.

   Let's not kid ourselves: this promises to be a difficult undertaking.

   • 2013, Zaz, Je rentre:

     Je fais la promesse de ne plus croire en ce qui me ment / Ne plus me nier dans ma souffrance

     I promise to stop believing in things that deceive me / To no longer deny myself in my suffering

This is one of a fairly large group of irregular -ir verbs that are all conjugated the same way. Other members of this group include sortir and dormir. The most significant difference between these verbs' conjugation and that of the regular -ir verbs is that these verbs' conjugation does not use the infix -iss-. Further, this conjugation has the forms (je, tu) mens and (il) ment in the present indicative and imperative, whereas a regular -ir verb would have *mentis and *mentit (as in the past historic).

• mensonge
• menteur

• “mentir”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• mirent
• riment

From Old Galician-Portuguese mentir, from Latin mentīrī.

• IPA^(key): [menˈtiɾ], (popular) [minˈtiɾ]

mentir (first-person singular present minto, third-person singular present mente, first-person singular preterite mentín, past participle mentido)

1. to lie (say something untrue)
   • 1370, Ramón Lorenzo, editor, Crónica troiana, A Coruña: Fundación Barrié, page 672:

     Et se uós, dom Ulixas, dizedes que auedes y mayor dereyto ca eu, dígouos que me mentides

     And in case that you, lord Ulysses, would say that you have more rights than me in this, then I'll tell you that you lie to me

2. (cattle) to exceed the expected calving time

• mentira (“lie”)
• mentirán (“liar”)
• mentireiro (“liar”)
• mentiroso (“liar”)
• mente (“mind”)

• Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, Ana Isabel Boullón Agrelo (2006–2022) “mentir”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “mentir”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “mentir”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “mentir”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

mentir

1. to lie

From Old French mentir.

mentir

1. to lie (say something untrue)

• French: mentir

From Latin mentīrī.

mentir

1. to lie (say something untrue)

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• mensoigne
• menteor

• Middle French: mentir
  • French: mentir

From Latin mentīrī.

mentir

1. to lie (say something untrue)

• menzonga

• Occitan: mentir

Inherited from Old Galician-Portuguese mentir, from Latin mentīrī.

• Audio (Northern Portugal):

  (file)

• Audio (Portugal):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i, -iʁ, -iɾ
• Homophone: (Brazil, Azores) menti
• Hyphenation: men‧tir

mentir (first-person singular present minto, third-person singular present mente, first-person singular preterite menti, past participle mentido)

1. (ambitransitive) to lie (to affirm as true what is known to be false, or to deny what is known to be true)
2. (transitive) to deceive, to lie
3. (intransitive) to fail

• “mentir”, in Dicionário infopédia da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2025
• “mentir”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Inherited from Old Spanish mentir (“to lie”), from Latin mentīrī.

• IPA^(key): /menˈtiɾ/ [mẽn̪ˈt̪iɾ]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iɾ
• Syllabification: men‧tir

mentir (first-person singular present miento, first-person singular preterite mentí, past participle mentido)

1. to lie (say something untrue)

   Me mientes.

   You're lying to me.

• “mentir”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024