myth

noun

MITH/mɪθ/

6 meanings of myth

1
nouncountable
A commonly held but false belief; a popular but mistaken idea about a real person or event that exaggerates or idealizes the truth.
The myth that bulls are enraged by the color red persists despite evidence that they cannot see it.
Several myths about the company's founder have grown more flattering with each retelling.
Similarmisconception
Oppositefact, truth, reality
Note
The everyday sense often takes a that-clause naming the false belief: the myth that gum stays in the stomach for seven years. Debunk is its natural verb. Misconception is the close synonym, but myth stresses that the belief is commonly held and passed around. A misconception can belong to one person, while a myth belongs to a crowd.
2
nouncountable
A traditional story embodying a belief about some fact or experience, often personifying the forces of nature; a sacred narrative about a god, a hero, or the origin of the world or a people.
The creation myth of the Norse describes the world emerging from a great void.
In this myth, thunder is the sound of a god's hammer striking the mountains.
Similarlegend, fable, tale, saga
Note
Behind it lies Greek mûthos: a word, a speech, an account, but also a rumor or a fable. English took it up only in 1830, and mythos is its doublet. Scholars of religion and folklore set myth apart from legend by its reach over origins, and from folktale by its claim to sacred truth. Unlike the "false belief" meaning, calling a story a myth here says nothing about whether it is untrue.
3
noununcountable
Traditional sacred stories considered collectively as a literary and cultural genre.
Comparative study of myth reveals striking parallels between distant cultures.
His lectures trace how myth shaped the earliest written literature.
Similarlegend, folklore
Note
The genre takes no article, the way poetry or folklore does: E. Clodd's Myths & Dreams (1885) writes that myth was the product of man's emotion and imagination, treating the whole body of sacred stories as one subject. As soon as you count them, as in a myth or two myths, you are back with the single sacred story. Phrases like the study of myth keep the collective reading.
4
nouncountable
An invented story, theory, or concept with no basis in fact.
Critics dismissed the company's eco-friendly image as a marketing myth.
He constructed an elaborate myth around his supposed wartime heroics.
Similarfiction, fabrication, invention, fantasy
Oppositefact, truth
5
nouncountable
A person or thing that exists only in imagination, or whose actual existence cannot be verified.
To overworked employees, the four-hour workday is still a myth.
Some explorers insisted the city of gold was no myth but a real place yet to be found.
Similarfantasy, fiction, illusion, fable
Oppositereality, fact
6
nouncountable
Someone or something that, through popular legend, inspires excessive or almost religious awe or admiration.
Decades after his last race, the driver remains a myth to motorsport fans.
The band became such a myth that fans treated their early demos as sacred.
Similarlegend, icon, idol

Practice

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Origin

It comes from the Ancient Greek "mûthos" (μῦθος), meaning word, speech, account, or fable, and has been used in English since 1830. It is a doublet of "mythos."