apocryphal
Americanadjective
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of doubtful authorship or authenticity.
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Ecclesiastical.
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(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Apocrypha.
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of doubtful sanction; uncanonical.
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false; spurious.
He told an apocryphal story about the sword, but the truth was later revealed.
adjective
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of questionable authenticity
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(sometimes capital) of or like the Apocrypha
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untrue; counterfeit
Other Word Forms
- apocryphally adverb
- apocryphalness noun
Etymology
Origin of apocryphal
First recorded in 1580–90; apocryph(a) + -al 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This apocryphal lazybones is defined by two traits.
From Salon • Jan. 14, 2026
To promote his call for a separate air force, Mitchell exaggerated the outcome—including the apocryphal claim that admirals witnessing the demonstration “wept aloud” as the target went under.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 1, 2026
What defines him instead are various quips, mordant jokes and accounts of bizarre behavior, many no doubt apocryphal, recorded by his admirers and detractors in the centuries after his death.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025
Much of “Flour” is concerned with the woman’s conversation with her driver about a parable from the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas that he is translating from Coptic—a tale, he says, about emptiness and unknowing.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 14, 2025
In one possibly apocryphal story, doctors once trained a homeless man to do routine lab tests because there was no one else available.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
