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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

counterfeit.

False, especially of money; intended to deceive or carry appearance of being genuine.

11 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈkaʊn.tɚˌfɪt/General-American/ˈkawntəˌfɪt/British, Southern, Standard
  1. False, especially of money; intended to deceive or carry appearance of being genuine.

    not-comparable
    This counterfeit watch looks like the real thing, but it broke a week after I bought it.
  2. Inauthentic.

    not-comparable
    counterfeit sympathy
  3. Assuming the appearance of something; deceitful; hypocritical.

    not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English counterfeit, countrefet, from Anglo-Norman countrefait, from Old French contrefait, from Latin contra- (“against”) + Latin facere (“to make”). Piecewise doublet of contrafactum.

noun/ˈkaʊn.tɚˌfɪt/General-American/ˈkawntəˌfɪt/British, Southern, Standard
  1. A non-genuine article; a fake.

  2. One who counterfeits; a counterfeiter.

  3. That which resembles another thing; a likeness; a portrait; a counterpart.

    obsolete
  4. An impostor; a cheat.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English counterfeit, countrefet, from Anglo-Norman countrefait, from Old French contrefait, from Latin contra- (“against”) + Latin facere (“to make”). Piecewise doublet of contrafactum.

verb/ˈkaʊn.tɚˌfɪt/General-American/ˈkawntəˌfɪt/British, Southern, Standard
  1. To falsely produce what appears to be official or valid; to produce a forged copy of.

    transitive
    to counterfeit the signature of another, coins, notes, etc.
  2. To produce a faithful copy of.

    obsolete · transitive
  3. To feign; to mimic.

    obsolete · transitive
    to counterfeit the voice of another person
  4. Of a turn or river card, to invalidate a player's hand by making a better hand on the board.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English counterfeit, countrefet, from Anglo-Norman countrefait, from Old French contrefait, from Latin contra- (“against”) + Latin facere (“to make”). Piecewise doublet of contrafactum.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.