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
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counterfeitlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
counterfeitsimple
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counterfeitssimple
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have counterfeitedperfect
-
has counterfeitedperfect
-
am counterfeitingprogressive
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are counterfeitingprogressive
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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:
Vicki said she had yet to come across a counterfeit squishy toy, but has seen warnings from parents about a "very strong petrol smell" coming from them.
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
The UK government said more than 260,000 counterfeit toys were intercepted by UK Border Force in the last year alone.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
A counterfeit works only until someone examines it, and Judge Williams already has.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
“Imponderables are ponderable, but answerable, no. Ask a philosopher, but be cautious. If you hear, ‘Eureka!,’ if you think, ‘His answer has captured my question!,’ then here is proof he is a counterfeit.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
He also has strayed into investigative stories such as pharmaceutical counterfeits, sanctions, money laundering and terror finance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 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
He cited a US investigation which found a significant proportion of items that its researchers bought on Shein and Temu were likely counterfeits.
From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2025
Tepper will buy Chinese look-alikes too as long as they’re not counterfeits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
I am speaking of love which is worthy of the name, not of its many counterfeits.
From Courtship and Marriage And the Gentle Art of Home-Making by Annie S. (Annie Shepherd) Swan
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
But Leas sees these documents as mostly marketing, and these reports can be counterfeited.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2024
“Love” stamp was counterfeited in a size larger than the authentic postage stamp.
From Washington Times ● Sep. 19, 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
The Bank the move was primarily to stop counterfeiting so all images need to be replaced on banknotes over time.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
In 1888, in an effort to stem counterfeiting of their travel trunks, Louis Vuitton and his son, Georges, introduced the Damier “checkerboard” pattern, in distinctive shades of taupe and chocolate.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 2, 2026
“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
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
Secret Service, which was already responsible for defending the government against fraud and counterfeiting.
From "Ambushed!" by Gail Jarrow
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.
