counterfeit
Americanadjective
noun
-
counterfeits
plural
-
an imitation intended to be passed off fraudulently or deceptively as genuine; forgery.
- Synonyms:
- sham, falsification
-
Archaic. a copy.
-
Archaic. a close likeness; portrait.
-
Obsolete. impostor; pretender.
verb (used with object)
-
counterfeits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
counterfeited,
past participle, past
-
counterfeiting
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
counterfeits,
present (3rd person singular)
-
counterfeited,
past participle, past
-
counterfeiting
present participle
-
to make counterfeits, as of money.
-
to feign; dissemble.
adjective
-
made in imitation of something genuine with the intent to deceive or defraud; forged
-
simulated; sham
counterfeit affection
noun
-
an imitation designed to deceive or defraud
-
archaic an impostor; cheat
verb
-
(tr) to make a fraudulent imitation of
-
(intr) to make counterfeits
-
to feign; simulate
-
(tr) to imitate; copy
Synonym Usage
See false.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
counterfeiternoun
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counterfeitnessnoun
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noncounterfeitadjective
-
uncounterfeitedadjective
-
counterfeitlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
counterfeitsimple
-
counterfeitssimple
-
have counterfeitedperfect
-
has counterfeitedperfect
-
am counterfeitingprogressive
-
are counterfeitingprogressive
-
is counterfeitingprogressive
-
have been counterfeitingperfect progressive
-
has been counterfeitingperfect progressive
Past
-
counterfeitedsimple
-
had counterfeitedperfect
-
was counterfeitingprogressive
-
were counterfeitingprogressive
-
had been counterfeitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of counterfeit
First recorded in 1250–1300; (adjective) Middle English countrefet “false, forged,” from Anglo-French cuntrefet, Old French contrefait, contrefet, past participle of contrefaire, contrefere “to copy, imitate,” equivalent to conter- counter- + fere “to make, do,” ultimately from Latin facere ( see fact); (verb) Middle English countrefeten, verbal derivative of countrefet
Explanation
A counterfeit is a fake or a forgery. If you painted an uncanny copy of the "Mona Lisa" and tried to pass it off as the original, you'd have a counterfeit on your hands. An exact imitation of anything — a work of art, a ten dollar bill — is a counterfeit, and the act of creating the fake copy is the verb to counterfeit. You can also describe the forgery using the adjective form of counterfeit: a counterfeit Rolex watch. In Old French, the word contre, "counter or against", together with the word faire, "to make," joined together to mean "to make in imitation," which led to our counterfeit.
Vocabulary lists containing counterfeit
Against All Odds: Contra and Counter
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Fake It 'Til You Make It: Synonyms for "False"
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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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.
See Examples For:
The department had initially intercepted and inspected the shipment at the port based on a tip received by its counterfeit and piracy enforcement team, the department said in the release.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Trading-card grading volume is growing year over year, hitting a record high this April, and so is counterfeit activity.
From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026
EBay is banning the sale of air bags and air-bag parts on its website, beginning next month, following multiple reports of fatalities involving components believed to be counterfeit and installed in used cars.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Vinted said there had been "fraudulent activity, such as selling counterfeit items".
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
“Polly’s a good boy,” said the bird in its disquieting nasal counterfeit of a human voice.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
We followed the supply chain behind official shirts after fans told us they were frustrated by rising prices, with many turning to cheaper counterfeits instead.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
As Murano island’s glass factories face exorbitant energy costs, a shrinking pool of skilled apprentices and competition from counterfeits, the Seguso brand remains one of the last practitioners of the art form.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 17, 2026
Shortly after, DTN said it believed the inflaters were counterfeits manufactured by another company, and that “the related accidents were not necessarily caused by a defect in the inflater.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The supply chain for most of Vietnam's counterfeits can be traced back across its northern border into China, where they are manufactured.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
The greatest affliction of his life was that his dark spectacles prevented him from inspecting the coins that fell in his palm, and he received more than his share of leaden counterfeits.
From Fifty Contemporary One-Act Plays by Various
The Chinese company, DTN Airbag, has said it doesn’t do business with customers in the U.S. and that it believes the company’s parts have been counterfeited.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
The 48-year-old author even took to Instagram this week to warn her fans that counterfeited copies, external of The Polygamist were being sold in a bookshop in Nairobi.
From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026
The victim’s sister remembers how skillfully Martinez counterfeited compassion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2025
But Leas sees these documents as mostly marketing, and these reports can be counterfeited.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2024
We cannot ignore the possibility that the work may have been done by someone else, or that someone counterfeited the mark into the stone much later.
From "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" by E.L. Konigsburg
“It looks like the company’s seemingly blatant attempts at counterfeiting patented weight-loss drugs via compounding finally went too far,” said On the Street Substack author Herb Greenberg.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 9, 2026
The tech also assigns a counterfeiting risk score based on the company’s years of collecting information on real and fake items.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 21, 2026
Both men were charged with "counterfeiting medicines or medical products", and the 26-year-old also faces money-laundering charges.
From Barron's ● Dec. 3, 2025
When you see the counterfeiting in “To Live and Die L.A.,” people were fascinated by that.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 26, 2025
But that rarely happened; the fine for counterfeiting would be enormous: two and a half times the full market value of the genuine animal.
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
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