The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Canard \Ca*nard"\, n. [F., properly, a duck.]
   An extravagant or absurd report or story; a fabricated
   sensational report or statement; esp. one set afloat in the
   newspapers to hoax the public.
   [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

canard
    n 1: a deliberately misleading fabrication

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

75 Moby Thesaurus words for "canard":
   Cornish hen, artifice, bouncer, broiler, bruit, buzz, caille,
   caneton, capon, chapon, chicken, common talk, concoction, cry,
   dindon, dodge, duck, duckling, extravaganza, fable, fabrication,
   faisan, falsehood, falsity, fib, fiction, figment, flying rumor,
   forgery, fowl, fryer, goose, grapevine, grouse, guinea hen,
   hearsay, hoax, humbug, idea afloat, invention, latrine rumor, lie,
   misrepresentation, myth, news stirring, oie, on-dit, partridge,
   pheasant, pigeon, pigeonneau, poulet, prevarication, quail, report,
   roaster, romance, roorback, rumble, rumor, scuttlebutt, sell,
   spoof, squab, stewing chicken, tale, talk, town talk, trick,
   turkey, unconfirmed report, untruth, volaille, whisper,
   wild duck