fake

1 of 5

adjective

ˈfāk 

faker; fakest

: not true, real, or genuine : counterfeit, sham

He was wearing a fake mustache.

She held up the bowl to the window light and smiled her fakest smile yet …

—Lee Durkee

From the well-known to the unknown, fake news, misinformation and hate rhetoric are causing harm to many individuals.

—Dolar Popat

fake

2 of 5

noun (1)

: one that is not what it purports to be: such as

a

: a worthless imitation passed off as genuine

The signature was a fake.

b

: impostor, charlatan

He told everyone that he was a lawyer, but he was just a fake.

c

: a simulated movement in a sports contest (such as a pretended kick, pass, or jump or a quick movement in one direction before going in another) designed to deceive an opponent

d

: a device or apparatus used by a magician to achieve the illusion of magic in a trick

fake

3 of 5

verb (1)

faked; faking

transitive verb

1

: to alter, manipulate, or treat so as to give a spuriously (see spurious sense 2) genuine appearance to : doctor

faked the lab results

2

: counterfeit, simulate, concoct

faked a heart attack

3

: to deceive (an opponent) in a sports contest by means of a fake (see fake entry 2 sense c)

4

: improvise, ad-lib

whistle a few bars … and I'll fake the rest

—Robert Sylvester

intransitive verb

1

: to engage in faking something : pretend

—sometimes used with it

if you don't have the answers, fake it

2

: to give a fake to an opponent

The runner faked left and then cut to the right.

faker noun

fakery

ˈfā-k(ə-)rē 

noun

fake

4 of 5

noun (2)

: one loop of a coil (as of ship's rope or a fire hose) coiled free for running

fake

5 of 5

verb (2)

faked; faking

transitive verb

: to coil in fakes

Synonyms

Adjective

• artificial
• bogus
• dummy
• ersatz
• factitious
• false
• faux
• imitation
• imitative
• man-made
• mimic
• mock
• pretend
• sham
• simulated
• substitute
• synthetic

Noun (1)

• counterfeit
• forgery
• hoax
• humbug
• phony
• phoney
• sham

Verb (1)

• counterfeit
• forge
• phony

Choose the Right Synonym for fake

imposture, fraud, sham, fake, humbug, counterfeit mean a thing made to seem other than it is.

imposture applies to any situation in which a spurious object or performance is passed off as genuine.

their claim of environmental concern is an imposture

fraud usually implies a deliberate perversion of the truth.

the diary was exposed as a fraud

sham applies to fraudulent imitation of a real thing or action.

condemned the election as a sham

fake implies an imitation of or substitution for the genuine but does not necessarily imply dishonesty.

these jewels are fakes; the real ones are in the vault

humbug suggests elaborate pretense usually so flagrant as to be transparent.

creating publicity by foisting humbugs on a gullible public

counterfeit applies especially to the close imitation of something valuable.

20-dollar bills that were counterfeits

Examples of fake in a Sentence

Adjective

That blood is clearly fake.

He was wearing a fake mustache.

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

This town is not fake, despite the twee name, and neither are the feel-good vibes. —Lizz Schumer, Peoplemag, 19 Apr. 2024

Rodriguez’s character, a strong-willed sportswriter, says that Bumble is fake — the opposite of real life. —Erin Carlson, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Apr. 2024

Last month, a Beverly Hills middle school expelled five students who used generative AI to create fake nude images of classmates. —Sage Lazzaro, Fortune, 18 Apr. 2024

That helps explain the rise of the fake Caesar too. —Ellen Cushing, The Atlantic, 17 Apr. 2024

Wells Fargo has faced numerous sanctions and lawsuits since its 2016 fake accounts scandal. —Chase Jordan, Charlotte Observer, 17 Apr. 2024

Decentralization can be particularly beneficial to social media networks where the use of the blockchain can help combat issues such as fake news, disinformation and misinformation, as the technology can verify the authenticity of content, identity and sources. —Jeffrey Edell, Rolling Stone, 17 Apr. 2024

Smith has accused Trump of deceitfully organizing fake slates of electors in seven battleground states and urging state officials to send the false certificates to Congress. —Melissa Quinn, CBS News, 16 Apr. 2024

Taylor started diving deeper online and realized multiple fake accounts with videos had been made in her name, on various sites. —Lorena O'Neil, Rolling Stone, 8 Apr. 2024

Noun

And the tools to make these fakes are free and widely available. —Gerrit De Vynck, Washington Post, 5 Apr. 2024

And researchers are exploring additional ways of separating the real from the fake. —Tiffany Hsu, New York Times, 2 Apr. 2024

Tuckett is accused of calling about a school shooting threat and a hostage situation, which were ultimately determined to be fakes. —Landon Mion, Fox News, 25 Mar. 2024

When in doubt, use this AI image checklist Election fakes are particularly tricky to spot because there’s so much public footage of politicians speaking in front of similar backgrounds to copy. —Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 4 Apr. 2024

On the occasion of her promotion, Billboard spoke with Ballantyne about her new role, the importance of combatting AI deep fakes, Universal Music Group’s dispute with TikTok and the possible implications of the upcoming presidential election. —Chris Eggertsen, Billboard, 1 Apr. 2024

The pens found in Britain include crude fakes as well as ones distributed in bulk by more sophisticated criminals. —Ashleigh Furlong, Fortune Europe, 13 Mar. 2024

Order Confirmed To get a sense of how influencers are luring consumers in the US and Europe to buy fakes directly from China, consider a hypothetical counterfeit pair of Rick Owens designer sneakers, which typically retail for more than $1,000. —Louise Matsakis, WIRED, 10 Mar. 2024

The recording is a crude fake, according to administration officials who would speak only anonymously to discuss intelligence matters. —Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, 7 Mar. 2024

Verb

Demand is so high it’s led to a worldwide shortage from its North and South American supplier, Dreams USA—and spawned a gray market where 3,000% markups, Facebook Marketplace scams, and AliExpress fakes run rampant. —Jasmine Li, Fortune, 19 Apr. 2024

McKinnon also faked a block on that player — the Chiefs had shown cross-protection like this most of the game — before bluffing and running around him to the vacant space that was supposed to be there. —Jesse Newell, Kansas City Star, 16 Apr. 2024

Yorker said that Rupp-Jones’ comments about wanting more excitement in her life are indicative of Munchausen by proxy syndrome, a condition in which a caretaker — often a mother — fakes symptoms in someone else, usually a child, to gain attention. —Nicole Lopez, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11 Apr. 2024

Moreover, with his detached demeanor, Tom doesn’t even fake the affection or familiarity needed to carry off this ruse. —Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 4 Apr. 2024

Scott’s version can fake human emotions — sometimes convincingly, sometimes less so, like his difficulty concealing his dislike of both Marge and of Dickie’s friend Freddie (Eliot Sumner, stepping into big shoes left by Hoffman) — and nurses private resentments. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 4 Apr. 2024

Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who faked her own abduction last July, has been spared jail time and sentenced to probation after pleading guilty, according to multiple reports. —Emily Palmer, Peoplemag, 21 Mar. 2024

Carlee Russell, the Alabama woman who faked her own kidnapping last year, has pleaded guilty and will not serve jail time. —Stepheny Price, Fox News, 21 Mar. 2024

Later episodes dwell on how Tom learns to fake other people’s signatures and forge documents, or even on something relatively small like the manipulations required to get ice cubes out of trays with early Sixties refrigerator/freezer technology. —Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 4 Apr. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

derivative of fake entry 2

Note: Not recorded as an adjective before 1879. The supposed use by the British general Richard Howe in a dispatch from Boston to the Secretary of State dated December 3, 1775 ("So many artifices have been practiced upon Strangers under the appearance of Friendship, fake Pilots &c."; Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1904, Ottawa, 1905, p. 355) is most likely a misreading (perhaps for faux or false?).

Noun (1)

derivative of fake entry 3

Verb (1)

originally underworld argot, of uncertain origin

Note: The verb fake perhaps first appears in print, in the form faik, in 1810. In James Hardy Vaux's "A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language" (vol. 2 of Hardy's Memoirs, London, 1819), it receives a very general definition: "a word so variously used, that I can only illustrate it by a few examples. To fake any person or place, may signify to rob them; to fake a person, may also imply to shoot, wound, or cut; to fake a man out and out, is to kill him; a man who inflicts wounds upon, or otherwise disfigures, himself, for any sinister purpose, is said to have faked himself … to fake a screeve, is to write a letter, or other paper; to fake a screw, is to shape out a skeleton or false key, for the purpose of screwing a particular place; to fake a cly, is to pick a pocket; etc., etc., etc." (p. 170). However, Hardy also records bit-faking "coining base money" and both Vaux and the earlier Lexicon Balatronicum (London, 1811, a revision of Francis Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785) record fakement in the sense "forgery." so the sense "to simulate, counterfeit" was perhaps part of its original meaning. Much earlier is the agent noun faker, defined as "maker" in a list of "Canting Terms used by Beggars, Vagabonds, Cheaters, Cripples and Bedlams." in Randle Holme's The Academy of Armory (Chester, 1688) (a book about heraldry that includes a miscellany of information having nothing to do with heraldry). Along with faker Holme lists Ben-Fakers, "Counterfeiters of Passes and Seals" (ben is defined as "good"). This expression occurs earlier as ben-feaker in Thomas Dekker's pamphlet on cant, O per se O. Or A new cryer of Lanthorne and candle-light (London, 1612): "Of Ben-feakers of Jybes …They who are Counterfeiters of Passeports, are called Ben-feakers , that is to say, Good-Makers." (It is possible that Holme simply copied his entries from Dekker.) The noun feaker/faker implies a corresponding verb feak/fake "make," for which there appears to be no certain evidence. There is feague, fegue "to beat, whip" (earliest in the compound bumfeage) and "to wear out, bring about the ruin of," which are colloquial—the second sense is only attested in Restoration drama—but not argot, and which have a voiced velar consonant (aside from a single occurrence of a participle feakt). A suggestion dating back to Nathan Bailey's An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (4th edition, 1728) is that this word is borrowed from Dutch vegen "to sweep"; compare also German fegen "to wipe, clean, sweep." For further discussion see Anatoly Liberman, "A fake etymology of the word fake," OUPblog, August 23, 2017.

Noun (2)

probably derivative of fake entry 5

Verb (2)

Middle English faken, of obscure origin

First Known Use

Adjective

1879, in the meaning defined above

Noun (1)

1829, in the meaning defined above

Verb (1)

1819, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Noun (2)

1627, in the meaning defined above

Verb (2)

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing fake

• fake it
• fake news
• fake out
• pump fake
• up-fake

Kids Definition

fake

1 of 3 adjective

ˈfāk 

: not genuine : phony

fake

2 of 3 noun

1

: an imitation that is passed off as genuine : counterfeit

2

: impostor

a medical fake

fake

3 of 3 verb

faked; faking

1

: to change or treat so as to make false

faked the results

2

: counterfeit entry 1 sense 1

fake a rare first edition

3

: pretend entry 1 sense 1, simulate

fake surprise

faker noun

fakery

ˈfā-k(ə-)rē

noun