Library / English Dictionary

FAKE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

(football) a deceptive move made by a football player

Synonyms:

fake; juke

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("fake" is a kind of...):

feint (any distracting or deceptive maneuver (as a mock attack))

Domain category:

football; football game (any of various games played with a ball (round or oval) in which two teams try to kick or carry or propel the ball into each other's goal)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be

Synonyms:

fake; postiche; sham

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("fake" is a kind of...):

imitation (something copied or derived from an original)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fake"):

fake book (a fake in the form of an imitation book; used to fill bookcases of people who wish to appear scholarly)

Potemkin village (something that seems impressive but in fact lacks substance)

Derivation:

fake (speak insincerely or without regard for facts or truths)

fake (make a copy of with the intent to deceive)

fake (tamper, with the purpose of deception)

fake (not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person who makes deceitful pretenses

Synonyms:

fake; faker; fraud; imposter; impostor; pretender; pseud; pseudo; role player; sham; shammer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("fake" is a kind of...):

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "fake"):

name dropper (someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends)

ringer (a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses)

Derivation:

fake (make a copy of with the intent to deceive)

fake (tamper, with the purpose of deception)

fake (fraudulent; having a misleading appearance)

 II. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fraudulent; having a misleading appearance

Synonyms:

bastard; bogus; fake; phoney; phony

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)

Derivation:

fake (a person who makes deceitful pretenses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not genuine or real; being an imitation of the genuine article

Example:

a purse of simulated alligator hide

Synonyms:

fake; false; faux; imitation; simulated

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

artificial; unreal (contrived by art rather than nature)

Derivation:

fake (something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be)

 III. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Speak insincerely or without regard for facts or truths

Example:

The politician was not well prepared for the debate and faked it

Synonyms:

bull; bullshit; fake; talk through one's hat

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "fake" is one way to...):

affect; dissemble; feign; pretend; sham (make believe with the intent to deceive)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s on something

Derivation:

fake (something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be)

faker (a person who makes deceitful pretenses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a copy of with the intent to deceive

Example:

She forged a Green Card

Synonyms:

counterfeit; fake; forge

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "fake" is one way to...):

re-create (create anew)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

fakery (the act of faking (or the product of faking))

fake (a person who makes deceitful pretenses)

fake (something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Tamper, with the purpose of deception

Example:

falsify the data

Synonyms:

cook; fake; falsify; fudge; manipulate; misrepresent; wangle

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "fake" is one way to...):

cheat; chisel (engage in deceitful behavior; practice trickery or fraud)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "fake"):

juggle (manipulate by or as if by moving around components)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

fake (something that is a counterfeit; not what it seems to be)

fake; faker (a person who makes deceitful pretenses)

fakery (the act of faking (or the product of faking))

Credits

 Context examples: 

An early example of fake news has been found in the 3000-year-old Babylonian story of Noah and the Ark, which is widely believed to have inspired the Biblical tale.

(‘Trickster god’ used fake news in Babylonian Noah story, University of Cambridge)

It was asserted that he had never written it, that the magazine had faked it very clumsily, or that Martin Eden was emulating the elder Dumas and at the height of success was hiring his writing done for him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

No such difference was found in the case of people of colour, who were able to accurately distinguish between expressions of genuine vs. fake happiness, regardless of whether the person smiling was white or black.

(White people’s perceptions of the emotions on black people’s faces are less accurate than their perceptions among other white people, University of Granada)

There was talk of faking.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Dr Worthington, a Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge, said: “Ea tricks humanity by spreading fake news. He tells the Babylonian Noah, known as Uta–napishti, to promise his people that food will rain from the sky if they help him build the ark. What the people don’t realise is that Ea’s nine-line message is a trick: it is a sequence of sounds that can be understood in radically different ways, like English ‘ice cream’ and ‘I scream’.###!!!###

(‘Trickster god’ used fake news in Babylonian Noah story, University of Cambridge)

Faked, Summerlee! Clumsily faked!

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He's as clever as they make 'em—a full-charged battery of force and vitality, but a quarrelsome, ill-conditioned faddist, and unscrupulous at that. He had gone the length of faking some photographs over the South American business.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)