How to spell belie

hear itbe·lie/bɪ'laɪ/verbLong vowels

What it means: To contradict or represent falsely.

In a sentence: The mask could not belie her cheerful smile.

The part people get wrong

Watch for the order of ie. Often misspelled as believe or bely.

Same family: belies, belied, belying, contradict, misrepresent. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Belie” comes from Old English “belēogan,” meaning ‘to deceive or lie around,’ and originally had a stronger sense of ‘to tell lies about.’ Over time, its meaning narrowed to our modern sense of ‘to give a false impression of’ or ‘to contradict.’

Patterns it uses: i before e?

Try spelling it

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