perjury

noun

per·​ju·​ry ˈpər-jə-rē 

ˈpərj-rē

: the voluntary violation of an oath or vow either by swearing to what is untrue or by omission to do what has been promised under oath : false swearing

Did you know?

The prefix per- in Latin often meant "harmfully". So witnesses who perjure themselves do harm to the truth by knowingly telling a lie. Not all lying is perjury, only lying under oath; so perjury generally takes place either in court or before a legislative body such as Congress. To avoid committing perjury, a witness or defendant may "take the Fifth": that is, refuse to answer a question because the answer might be an admission of guilt, and the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution forbids forcing a citizen to admit to being guilty of a crime.

Examples of perjury in a Sentence

He was found guilty of perjury.

Recent Examples on the Web

Election officials found that roughly 98,000 people had been wrongly marked in their system as having provided proof of citizenship — a requirement to vote in Arizona (every other state requires a pledge of citizenship under penalty of perjury). —Faith E. Pinho, Los Angeles Times, 3 Nov. 2024

In addition, Mata referred Owens for felony prosecution for violating Arizona's laws regarding perjury and evidence tampering. —Jimmy Jenkins, The Arizona Republic, 1 Nov. 2024

He was charged with one count of perjury, two of violating the state elections code for not being entitled to vote in an election, and a fourth count for voter-registration fraud, according to a District Attorney’s Office statement. —Sean Emery, Orange County Register, 31 Oct. 2024

Craig Wright, an Australian scientist who has long claimed to be the creator of Bitcoin, has now been referred to British prosecutors for allegedly committing perjury. —Vinamrata Chaturvedi, Quartz, 16 July 2024

Word History

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

perjury

noun

per·​ju·​ry ˈpərj-(ə-)rē 

plural perjuries

: the act or crime of swearing to what one knows is untrue

Legal Definition

perjury

noun

per·​ju·​ry ˈpər-jə-rē 

plural perjuries

: the act or crime of knowingly making a false statement (as about a material matter) while under oath or bound by an affirmation or other officially prescribed declaration that what one says, writes, or claims is true compare false swearing

Etymology

Anglo-French perjurie, parjurie, from Latin perjurium, from perjurus deliberately giving false testimony, from per- detrimental to + jur-, jus law