canard

An unfounded rumor or story deliberately spread to mislead.

• (no common derivatives)

• old canard
• political canard
• persistent canard
• debunk a canard

1. 1.The claim that humans only use 10% of their brains is a persistent canard. (false belief)
2. 2.Politicians love to recycle the old canard that tax cuts pay for themselves. (misleading story)

• falsehood/ˈfɔːlshʊd/— untrue statement
• myth/mɪθ/— widely held but false belief
• fabrication/ˌfæbrɪˈkeɪʃən/— invented story

from French "canard" = duck — possibly from "vendre un canard à moitié" = to half-sell a duck (i.e., to cheat/swindle) — a story designed to deceive