To prevaricate means to avoid telling the truth directly by speaking in a deliberately vague or misleading way. When someone prevaricates, they dance around the facts, use confusing language, or give answers that sound like they mean something but actually don't.

Imagine asking your friend if they broke your favorite pencil, and instead of saying yes or no, they launch into a long story about how pencils break all the time and how fragile pencils are these days. That's prevarication: talking a lot without actually answering the question.

Prevarication is different from an outright lie. A prevaricator might not say anything completely false, but they're trying to hide the truth by being evasive. Politicians sometimes prevaricate when asked difficult questions, giving lengthy responses that sound important but don't actually answer what was asked. A student might prevaricate when a teacher asks if they finished their homework, saying, “Well, I worked really hard on it and spent a lot of time thinking about it,” when the real answer is simply no.

While prevarication might seem clever in the moment, people usually see through it. Most people respect someone who admits the truth plainly over someone who prevaricates to avoid it.