# Looking for words or terms for "lying without lying". **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 2012, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367 "2012-11-18T02:10:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/41 "2012-11-20T19:34:26Z")
Being “economical with the truth”. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/42 "2012-11-20T21:02:36Z")
technically true ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/43 "2012-11-20T21:45:09Z")
“Delphic,” sort of, as in “Delphic pronouncement,” a statement (particularly an oracular one) carefully worded so as to be open to multiple meanings, as when the Oracle of Delphi told Croseus that going to war with the Persians would man the destruction of a mighty empire. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/44 "2012-11-21T00:23:12Z")
> [@Bearflag70](#): > > Anecdote alert: I had a friend who would boast, “I was in a band and on MTV.” > > He didn’t tell people that those two things were not concurrent. He was in a band in college. After college, he was no longer in a band. Then, he appeared on an MTV dating show and was one of a large pool of guys eliminated in about 2 minutes flat. You can barely see him walking off stage if you pause the video just right and he points it out to you. > > It made an impression when he would throw it around to drunk girls in bars. My grandfather used a similar ploy with us, and I’ve passed it on to my own grand kids - he would say, “I can stick out my tongue and touch my ear!” And, of course, he could do both of those things. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/45 "2012-11-21T00:55:58Z")
I would call it an equivocation or making a misleading but true statement. For example, if the Nazis show up and ask you if you are hiding any Jews in your home, and you are hiding several in your basement, responding to them by saying, “There are no Jews here!” and waving your hand around could be a misleading but true statement. You intend “here” to mean “this area right around the doorway”, but you hope the Nazi’s interpret “here” to mean “the entire home”. I think an equivocation might be a specific case of a misleading but true statement where you take advantage of the definition of words, implying one definition of a word or one homophone but intending to literally use another. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/46 "2012-11-21T01:30:12Z")
Clintonesque ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/47 "2012-11-21T03:13:10Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > Being “economical with the truth”. 😃 As suggested in post #15. Thanks for your support. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/48 "2012-11-21T04:39:29Z")
Insinuating? ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2012, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367/49 "2012-11-21T04:55:58Z")
dissimulation [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-words-or-terms-for-lying-without-lying/641367.md?page=2)