Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of questionable authorship or authenticity.
- adj. Erroneous; fictitious: "Wildly apocryphal rumors about starvation in Petrograd . . . raced through Russia's trenches” ( W. Bruce Lincoln).
- adj. Bible Of or having to do with the Apocrypha.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Of doubtful authorship, authenticity, or inspiration; spurious; fictitious; false.
- Specifically— Eccles.: Of doubtful sanction; uncanonical; having no ecclesiastical authority.
- Of or pertaining to the Apocrypha: as, “the Apocryphal writers,” Addison.
- n. A writing not canonical; a book or passage of uncertain source, authority, or credit.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of, or pertaining to, the Apocrypha.
- adj. Of doubtful authenticity, or lacking authority; not regarded as canonical.
- adj. Of dubious veracity; of questionable accuracy or truthfulness; anecdotal or in the nature of an urban legend.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Pertaining to the Apocrypha.
- adj. Not canonical. Hence: Of doubtful authority; equivocal; mythic; fictitious; spurious; false.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or belonging to the Apocrypha
- adj. being of questionable authenticity
Examples
“The term apocryphal in connection with special Gospels must be understood as bearing no more unfavourable an import than”
“The original and proper sense of the term apocryphal as applied to the pretended sacred books was early obscured.”
“The same is the opinion of the Jews respecting the other books, which we call apocryphal, as is manifest from all the copies of the Hebrew Bible extant; for, undoubtedly if they believed that any of these books were canonical, they would give them a place in their sacred volume.”
“And, of course, to label any regionor the literary representation of a regionas legitimate or apocryphal, is best left to the polemicists.”
“If someone paraphrases those thoughts, and improperly puts quote marks around the paraphrase, then maybe apocryphal is not quite the right word for that impropriety.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » “Government Is Not Reason, It Is Not Eloquence — It Is Force”
“That these propositions cannot be affirmed of any other books claiming to be books of Scripture; by which are meant those books which are commonly called apocryphal books of the New Testament.”
“Babylonian captivity these books were apocryphal, that is, hidden or unknown to the people, they were constantly sacred — they bore the stamp of divinity — they were, as all the world agrees, the only monument of truth upon earth.”
“Nor can any further light be gained from the story of what Mr. Lang has happily termed the apocryphal eight which the King of Scots stroked on the Dee in the reign of Edgar.”
An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707)
“When he comes to the history of the Restoration from Babylon, Josephus follows what is now known as the apocryphal Book of Esdras, in preference to the Biblical Ezra and Nehemiah, probably because a”
“Josephus follows what is now known as the apocryphal Book of Esdras, in preference to the Biblical Ezra and Nehemiah, probably because a Hellenistic guide whom he had before him did likewise.”
Josephus
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘apocryphal’.
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G[r]eek
A collection of words found in English that are either purely Greek or have Greek etymology.
Please add with caution and certainty. Will be regularly updated by me.etymology, philosophy, laconic, disharmony, patriarchic, archaic, phlogiston, aether, aeon, angel, arachnid, rhythm and 322 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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Stump the Beezer
incipient, apocryphal, spurious, compendium, genius loci, tenterhooks, effusive, syncophant, glycosyn, pugnacious, secure authentica...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 1051 more...
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High Brow
tremulous, vigorous, unction, coadjutor, dotage, mirth, obtuseness, torpid, talisman, infirm, score, subsistence and 49 more...
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Words I Used to Know
Words that make you go "I know that word...what the heck does it mean?!?
pulchritude, sanguine, trenchant, picaresque, gloaming, perfidious, confabulation, epiphany, importune, fulminate, efficacious, maladroit and 111 more...
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xulilux's list
leviathan, destitute, iapetus, caesura, ineffable, eschew, phosphene, fungible, antediluvian, nomenclature, mottle, europa and 84 more...
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The Aleph
Words found in a collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges.
travail, magnanimous, troglodyte, euphorbia, satyr, lascivious, caustic, frontispiece, temerity, vertiginous, frieze, cupola and 72 more...
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Kathy C's List
My favorite words
golconda, au fait, purlicue, tautonym, cunctatory, gynecomastia, vesta, imprimatur, efflux, antediluvian, protean, phlegmatic and 24 more...
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Words that Julio has taught me
panegyric, encomium, navigable, gerrymander, carpetbagging, insidious, ribald, vilify, epithalamion, cogent, deprecate, apocryphal
frindley Within the Protestant church at least the Apocryphal books were/are considered edifying (i.e. "profitable and good to read") but not part of the canon for the establishment of church doctrine.
Luther, after all, considered the books worth the trouble of translating into German but, as I understand it, he rejected them as part of the canon because they contained useful defenses for such doctrines as purgatory and the saying of masses for the dead.
The quotation prefaces the Apocrypha in Luther's translation. Apr 2, 2008
Prolagus Maybe this is an apocryphal quotation. Apr 2, 2008
seanahan That's a pretty odd quote. Martin Luther was certainly quite radical, though by today's standards his stances were quite conservative. The Apocrypha are "not regarded as equal" for a number of reasons, not the least of which that they don't adhere to the strict message portrayed by the Catholic Church. I can imagine how Luther would support their reading. Apr 2, 2008
frindley "Apocrypha — that is, books which are not regarded as equal to the holy Scriptures, and yet are profitable and good to read."
Martin Luther Mar 31, 2008