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
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counterfeiternoun
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counterfeitnessnoun
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noncounterfeitadjective
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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:
Figures from Citizens Advice in 2025 showed a 30% rise in complaints about counterfeit goods being sold online over the previous year.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Entertainment groups representing big-ticket artists like BTS are suing the sellers of counterfeit merchandise ranging from an Ozzy Osbourne Christmas elf to $30 Lady Gaga candles.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
A counterfeit works only until someone examines it, and Judge Williams already has.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
Lilly hopes that an approval for retatrutide as a biologic will help close off a flourishing market in counterfeit versions of the drug.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
The Nuer tribe in the Sudan went so far as to smear stuffed animals with their mother’s urine, to give the counterfeit calves a familiar, live scent.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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
DTN has said it believes the inflaters identified are counterfeits of its own product.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Such proximity to China has proven favourable for Vietnam's booming counterfeits industry.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
Rolex looked at the multibillion-dollar annual trade in its secondhand watches, which is rife with counterfeits and speculators, and decided it had to intervene.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 26, 2025
Their counterfeits may crumble and tumble, but real truth can never fail.
From Sunshine Jane by Anne Warner
Nine Italian nationals have been arrested and charged with trading in counterfeited goods.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2024
But Leas sees these documents as mostly marketing, and these reports can be counterfeited.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2024
“Checks are more vulnerable than other payment methods to being compromised, counterfeited or stolen.”
From Washington Times ● Jun. 13, 2023
They were thus relatively scarce and could not be counterfeited.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
Each flower was made of glass or crystal, spun or carved, he could not tell: they counterfeited life perfectly.
From "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman
“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 Constitution contemplates Congress having limited law-enforcement powers and even specifies crimes it can punish: treason, counterfeiting, “offences against the law of nations” and “piracies and felonies on the high seas.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
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
It warned that counterfeiting criminals target a wide range of popular toys and it's important to be vigilant and aware of what you are purchasing.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 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
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.
