phony.
Fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance.
Meaning & usage
Fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance.
A good jeweler should be able to tell a real stone from a phony one.
Where this word comes from
Of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of fawny (“gilt brass ring used by swindlers”) (1781), from Irish fáinne (“ring”).
A person who assumes an identity or quality other than their own.
He claims to be a doctor, but he's nothing but a fast-talking phony.
A person who professes beliefs or opinions that they do not hold.
He's such a phony, he doesn't believe half of what he says.
Anything fraudulent or fake.
Where this word comes from
Of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of fawny (“gilt brass ring used by swindlers”) (1781), from Irish fáinne (“ring”).
To fake.
Where this word comes from
Of unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of fawny (“gilt brass ring used by swindlers”) (1781), from Irish fáinne (“ring”).
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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.