What it means
دروغ (dorogh) means a lie, a falsehood, or an untrue statement. It is one of the oldest and most fundamental words in Persian, descending directly from Avestan druj, which in Zoroastrian cosmology named the principle of deception and chaos opposed to asha (truth and order). The word has remained pure Persian through millennia without Arabic replacement, which signals how deeply embedded it is in the language. The verb form دروغ گفتن (dorogh goftan) means to lie. Its direct opposite is راست (râst, truth) or حقیقت (haqiqat, the Arabic-origin word for truth/reality).
How to use it
- این کاملاً دروغه. (in kâmelan dorogh-e.) “This is completely a lie.”
- دروغ نگو، میدونم چی شده. (dorogh nagu, midoonam chi shode.) “Don’t lie, I know what happened.”
- دروغش خیلی زود لو رفت. (doroghash kheili zud lu raft.) “His lie was exposed very quickly.”
- دروغ مصلحتی گاهی لازمه. (dorogh-e maslahat-i gâhi lâzem-e.) “A white lie is sometimes necessary.”
Cultural note
The opposition of راست (truth) and دروغ (lie) is one of the founding moral axes of Persian civilization, rooted in the Zoroastrian worldview where truth (asha) and the lie (druj) are cosmic forces in eternal conflict. This ancient framing gives دروغ a weight beyond simple social dishonesty. In contemporary Persian, دروغ مصلحتی (a lie told for expediency or to spare feelings) is a recognized category that allows some nuance in the absolute prohibition against lying. Collocations like دروغگو (liar) and دروغپرداز (fabricator) are common in everyday speech.