Word.ws English Dictionary

apocryphal

UK/əˈpɒkɹɪfəl//əˈpɑkɹɪfəl/

apocryphal adjective: of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.

Adjective (1)

apocryphal (comparative more apocryphal, superlative most apocryphal)

  1. Of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.
    • […] ‘Tobit and his dog baith are altogether heathenish and apocryphal, and none but a prelatist or a papist would draw them into question. I doubt I hae been mista'en in you, friend.’1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], chapter XXXVI, in Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and...
    • Besides all this, he had read his Bible, including the apocryphal books; […]1859, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter XIX, in Adam Bede […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC
  2. (broadly) Of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.
    • Many scholars consider the stories of the monk Teilo to be apocryphal.
    • The structural anthropologist urges us to ignore the orthodox who labor so patiently trying to eliminate the apocryphal variants from the one true text.1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 11
    Synonyms:
    allonymous, spurious
    Antonyms:
    canonical
  3. (broadly) Of dubious veracity; of questionable accuracy or truthfulness; anecdotal or in the nature of an urban legend.
    • There is an apocryphal tale of a little boy plugging the dike with his finger.
    • Charles, already dispos'd by the evidence of his senses to think my pretences to virginity not entirely apocryphal, smothers me with kisses, begs me, in the name of love, to have a little patience, and that he will be as tender of hurting me as he would be of himself.1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    anecdotal

Adjective (2) capitalized: Apocryphal

Apocryphal (not comparable)

  1. Of or relating to the Apocrypha.

apocryphal meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

apocryphal in Tamil

உறுதியற்றச் சான்று, ஏற்கப்படாத, மேற்கோளாக ஏற்கப்படமுடியாத, ஐயத்துக்கிடமான, போலியான, கட்டுக்கதையான

apocryphal in Urdu

غیرمستند, جعلی, مشکوک

apocryphal in Bengali

সন্দেহজনক, অলীক

apocryphal in Malayalam

made-up, fictitious, untrue
പ്രക്ഷിപ്തമായ, ഉള്ളതല്ലാത്ത, അധികൃതമല്ലാത്ത, കെട്ടുകഥയായ, ഭാവനയിൽനിന്നുടലെടുത്ത, കാല്പനിക
More languagesFewer languages
apocryphal in Arabic
شاذ šāḏ, منكر, ضعيف, مشكوك في صحته

Examples of apocryphal in a sentence

  • You’re comparing piano lessons to the apocryphal vomitoriums into which decadent Romans supposedly regurgitated their dinner?
  • If Meier is correct, then the potential contribution of the agrapha and apocryphal gospels to Jesus Research is limited.
  • The see of Ely bears the apocryphal coat of St.

All 12 example sentences with apocryphal

Synonyms of apocryphal

Antonyms

Forms of apocryphal

comparativemore apocryphal
superlativemost apocryphal

Origin of apocryphal

From apocrypha + -al.

Words formed from apocryphal

Questions about apocryphal

What does apocryphal mean?
Apocryphal means of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.
What is apocryphal in Tamil?
Apocryphal in Tamil is உறுதியற்றச் சான்று, ஏற்கப்படாத, மேற்கோளாக ஏற்கப்படமுடியாத. See Apocryphal meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is apocryphal?
Apocryphal is an adjective.
How do you pronounce apocryphal?
Apocryphal is pronounced /əˈpɒkɹɪfəl/ (UK).

Words near apocryphal in the dictionary

  1. apocrisiary
  2. apocrisis
  3. apocritan
  4. apocritans
  5. apocrypha
  6. apocryphal
  7. apocryphalist
  8. apocryphalists
  9. apocryphally
  10. apocryphalness
  11. apocryphiar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: apocryphal (page history and authors); Apocryphal (page history and authors); apocryphal (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); apocryphal (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); apocryphal (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); apocryphal (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-apocryphal.ogg.

Cite this entry: “apocryphal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/apocryphal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.