Word.ws English Dictionary

vranyo

UK/vɹɑːˈnjəʊ/US/vɹɑˈnjoʊ/

vranyo noun: white lies or half-lies ascribed to Russian culture, told without the intention of (maliciously) deceiving, but as a fantasy, or suppressing unpleasant parts of the truth.

Noun

vranyo (uncountable)

  1. White lies or half-lies ascribed to Russian culture, told without the intention of (maliciously) deceiving, but as a fantasy, or suppressing unpleasant parts of the truth
    • If the reports from the Russian authorities aren't all vranyo, there were not many Chechens among the Beslan ghouls.2004 September 6, Raven, “Re: OT: Beslan school hostage tragedy (Russia, Putin)”, in alt.fan.tolkien (Usenet)
    • And, after uttering the witty bit of vranyo, Gogol repaired the social lie at once by concluding "Nevsky Prospekt" with the admonition:
      Oh, do not trust that Nevsky Prospekt! ... the devil himself lights the street lamps to show everything in false colors.2006, Leonard J. Stanton, James Daniel Hardy, Interpreting Nikolai Gogol Within Russian Orthodoxy, page 26

Origin of vranyo

From Russian враньё (vranʹjó, “lying, lies”), from врать (vratʹ, “to lie”). Introduced to English during Cold War, though the meaning ascribed to it doesn't corresponding to original Russian usage.

Questions about vranyo

What does vranyo mean?
Vranyo means white lies or half-lies ascribed to Russian culture, told without the intention of (maliciously) deceiving, but as a fantasy, or suppressing unpleasant parts of the truth.
What part of speech is vranyo?
Vranyo is a noun.
How do you pronounce vranyo?
Vranyo is pronounced /vɹɑːˈnjəʊ/ (UK).

Words near vranyo in the dictionary

  1. Vranas
  2. Vrancea
  3. Vranch
  4. Vranches
  5. Vranesevich
  6. vranyo
  7. vrat
  8. vrata
  9. vratas
  10. Vratišinec
  11. vrats

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vranyo (page history and authors). 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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