The word lie implies a flat and unquestioned contradiction of the truth and a deliberate intent to deceive or mislead. Lie is a blunt term that imputes dishonesty. As Shakespeare said, “You told a lie; an odious, damned lie.”

The word prevarication is a more formal and less offensive term than lie; it softens the bluntness of lie by implying quibbling, dodging the real point, evading the truth, or confusing the issue. Its Latin ancestor literally meant “to straddle.”
We won’t prevaricate about the origin of fib; no one knows for sure where that word comes from. Dictionary editors theorize that fib, an informal or childish term for a trivial untruth, may have been created by shortening and altering the word “fable.”
Finally, there’s falsehood, a word that contrasts most directly with the word fact. Falsehood is commonly applied to such fictions as polite fictions, legal fictions, and yes, literary fictions.