Definition of "myth" []

• A traditional, typically ancient story dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes that serves as a fundamental type in the worldview of a people, as by explaining aspects of the natural world or delineating the psychology, customs, or ideals of society: the myth of Eros and Psyche; a creation myth. (noun)
• Such stories considered as a group: the realm of myth. (noun)
• A popular belief or story that has become associated with a person, institution, or occurrence, especially one considered to illustrate a cultural ideal: a star whose fame turned her into a myth; the pioneer myth of suburbia. (noun)
• A fiction or half-truth, especially one that forms part of an ideology. (noun)
• A fictitious story, person, or thing: "German artillery superiority on the Western Front was a myth” ( Leon Wolff). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The myth may be engaged in the transmission of a narrative of early deeds and events, having a foundation in truth, which truth, however, has been greatly distorted and perverted by the omission or introduction of circumstances and personages, and then it constitutes the _historical myth_."
• "Many use the term myth in a pejorative sense to mean that the stories described are not factually true."
• "It's being discovered that much of the Clinton-supporters-moving-to-McCain myth is being stoked by Republicans trying to weaken the Democratic Party."