Word of the Week: canard (kə-NÄRD)

Definition

(Noun) An extravagant or absurd story circulated to impose on people’s credulity; a hoax, a false report.

In Context

“The news of the awful calamity of Johnstown, Pa., with all its horrors, appalled us; and so frightful and improbable were the reports, that it required twenty-four hours to satisfy ourselves that it was not a canard.”

Clara Barton, The Red Cross in Peace and War, 1898.