phony

¹

or pho·ney

[ foh-nee ]

adjective

, pho·ni·er, pho·ni·est.

1. not real or genuine; fake; counterfeit:

   a phony diamond.

2. false or deceiving; not truthful; concocted:

   a phony explanation.

3. insincere or deceitful; affected or pretentious:

   a phony sales representative.

noun

, plural pho·nies.

1. something that is phony; a counterfeit or fake.

   Synonyms: hoax, imitation, fraud

2. an insincere, pretentious, or deceitful person:

   He thought my friends were a bunch of phonies.

verb (used with object)

, pho·nied, pho·ny·ing.

1. to falsify; counterfeit; fabricate (often followed by up ):

   to phony up a document.

-phony

²

1. a combining form used in the formation of abstract nouns corresponding to nouns ending in -phone:

   telephony.

-phony

¹

combining form

1. indicating a specified type of sound

   euphony

   cacophony

phony

²

/ ˈfəʊnɪ /

adjective

1. a variant spelling (esp US) of phoney

Derived Forms

• -phonic, combining_form:in_adjective
• ˈphoniness, noun

Other Words From

• phoni·ly adverb
• phoni·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of phony¹

1895–1900; perhaps alteration and respelling of fawney (slang) finger ring (< Irish fsptáinne ), if taken to mean “false” in the phrase fawney rig a confidence game in which a brass ring is sold as a gold one

Origin of phony²

< Greek -phōnia; -phone, -y ³

Word History and Origins

Origin of phony¹

from Greek -phōnia, from phōnē sound

Example Sentences

It just gets a bit phony whenever she wavers and pretends otherwise.

From The Daily Beast

He was arrested trying to flee to Jordan using phony identification.

From The Daily Beast

Surely they believe as well that the very concept of an ethnic nation “chosen” by God is phony and unjust.

From The Daily Beast

This single program alone has generated tens of thousands of phony Twitterers.

From The Daily Beast

In 2012, Facebook announced that 83 million profiles—pushing 10 percent of the total number on the site—were phony.

From The Daily Beast

I would even, I decided, stoop to having him thrown in jail on a phony charge, if that should be necessary.

From Project Gutenberg

And you knew, right away, that Swami was a phony from Flatbush.

From Project Gutenberg

The Swami was an obvious phony of the baldest fakery, yet he had something.

From Project Gutenberg

He had less than a hundred credits, a knife, a deck of phony cards, and a yellow ticket.

From Project Gutenberg

Unless the money is phony, or the pass is phony in which case the turnstile locks and all hell breaks loose.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bogus
• counterfeit
• forged
• sham
• spurious