inauthentic
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inauthentic
Explanation
An inauthentic person is fake or insincere, and an inauthentic thing isn't what it's said to be. That gold Rolex watch you bought for five dollars? It's probably inauthentic. Anything that pretends to be something it's not is inauthentic, whether it's a "designer" handbag or a person who's assuming a false identity. The adjective inauthentic is made up of the prefix in-, "not" or "opposite of," and authentic, "genuine" or "accurate." The Greek root is authentikos, "original, genuine, or principal."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Doherty says it would be inauthentic for that show not to have characters of racial minorities, even if this isn’t something that’s always addressed in the episodes’ plots.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 13, 2026
Meta - which owns Facebook and Instagram - said it takes "co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour seriously" and has "specialised global teams constantly working to identify and disrupt this type of activity".
From BBC ● May 15, 2026
The toxic content, AI-generated rumor cycles and coordinated inauthentic activity that already saturate the information environment are now sufficient, on their own, to move prediction-market prices in profitable directions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
Finally, restricting the monetization of inauthentic engagement would reduce the financial incentives for influence operations and other malicious groups to use synthetic consensus.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2026
They made notations in their family Bible, indicating places where biblical scholars deemed passages inauthentic, added later by unknown authors.
From "Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith" by Deborah Heiligman
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
