See the cake is a lie on Wiktionary
{
"etymology_text": "From the 2007 video game Portal, in which a self-aware computer, GLaDOS, lures the player into participating in dangerous experiments with the promise of cake. As the game progresses, the player discovers graffiti left by the only previous test subject to survive GLaDOS' murderous scheme, including the warning \"the cake is a lie\".",
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "2011 December 15, Nick Martin, “A Hit Sitcom In Just Five Easy Steps!”, in Buzz Weekly, page 6:",
"text": "The jokes are cake, and the cake is a lie — fan-service tricking nerds into watching a show designed for adults who vote Republican (Middle America!).",
"type": "quote"
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{
"ref": "2012, James Margeson, \"The quiet assault on public education\", The Sphinx (University of Liverpool), March 2012, page 9",
"text": "The assumption that a degree will vastly improve future earnings is increasingly misleading. By their very nature high paid jobs are exclusive and limited in number. \"The cake is a lie.\""
},
{
"ref": "2012 November 12, J. L. Hilton, Stellarnet Prince, Carina Press, →ISBN, page 320:",
"text": "“One shitty leader doesn't mean the cake is a lie. One man's decisions don't invalidate everything else—the ideals, the history, the words etched in marble and the sacrifices of all the people who make the United States a just and safe place to live.”",
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"The end being pursued is unattainable or misguided; the reward promised is false."
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"raw_glosses": [
"(Internet slang) The end being pursued is unattainable or misguided; the reward promised is false."
],
"related": [
{
"word": "chase a rainbow"
},
{
"word": "wild-goose chase"
},
{
"word": "mirage"
},
{
"word": "jam tomorrow"
},
{
"word": "pie in the sky"
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"Internet"
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{
"etymology_text": "From the 2007 video game Portal, in which a self-aware computer, GLaDOS, lures the player into participating in dangerous experiments with the promise of cake. As the game progresses, the player discovers graffiti left by the only previous test subject to survive GLaDOS' murderous scheme, including the warning \"the cake is a lie\".",
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{
"ref": "2012, James Margeson, \"The quiet assault on public education\", The Sphinx (University of Liverpool), March 2012, page 9",
"text": "The assumption that a degree will vastly improve future earnings is increasingly misleading. By their very nature high paid jobs are exclusive and limited in number. \"The cake is a lie.\""
},
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"ref": "2012 November 12, J. L. Hilton, Stellarnet Prince, Carina Press, →ISBN, page 320:",
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"word": "the cake is a lie"
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Download raw JSONL data for the cake is a lie meaning in All languages combined (2.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (4ba5975 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.