Word: Apocryphal

You pronounce it: [uh-pok-ruh-fuh l]

Definition: 

adjective
1. of doubtful authorship or authenticity.
2. Ecclesiastical.
(initial capital letter) of or relating to the Apocrypha.
of doubtful sanction; uncanonical.
3. false; spurious:
(sentence) He told an apocryphal story about the sword, but the truth was later revealed.

4. (of a story or statement) of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true:

“an apocryphal story about a former president”

Found this while reading T.S. Elliot’s introduction to “The Waste Land” when it says,

When they abruptly became dead (“I had not thought death had undone so many“), it’s an apocryphal instant. (xxiii).

Works Cited:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/apocryphal

Oxford Dictionaries