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Bogus Has a Long History
In her 1840 novel A New Home—Who’ll Follow?, author Carolina Kirkland wrote about a scandal affecting the fictitious frontier town of Tinkerville, whose bank vaults were discovered to contain “a heavy charge of broken glass and tenpenny nails, covered above and below with half-dollars, principally ‘bogus.’ Alas! for Tinkerville, and alas, for poor Michigan!” Alas indeed. Bogus (an apparent U.S. coinage) was first used in the argot of wildcat banks (like the one in Tinkerville) as a noun referring to counterfeit money. It later branched out into adjective use meaning “counterfeit or forged.” Although the noun is now obsolete, the adjective is still used today with the same meaning, and is applied not only to phony currency but to anything that is less than genuine, making it part of a treasury of similar words ranging from the very old (sham) to the fairly new (fugazi).
Examples of bogus in a Sentence
Peter White, Deadline, 13 Mar. 2026
This is not manufactured, like the DeSantis administration’s obsession with bogus fluoride studies or vaccine conspiracies.
—Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 12 Mar. 2026
Every sport risks becoming professional wrestling—an entertaining spectacle that everyone knows is bogus.
—Mckay Coppins, The Atlantic, 12 Mar. 2026
Online merch Authorities expect fake online FIFA shops to peddle bogus merchandise.
—Dave Lieber
mar. 11, Dallas Morning News, 11 Mar. 2026
See All Example Sentences for bogus
Cite this Entry
“Bogus.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bogus. Accessed 20 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
bogus
adjective
