fraud
Americannoun
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frauds
plural
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deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.
-
a particular instance of such deceit or trickery.
mail fraud; election frauds.
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any deception, trickery, or humbug.
That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.
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a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.
noun
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deliberate deception, trickery, or cheating intended to gain an advantage
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an act or instance of such deception
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something false or spurious
his explanation was a fraud
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informal a person who acts in a false or deceitful way
Synonym Usage
See duplicity.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of fraud
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English fraude, from Old French, from Medieval Latin fraud-, stem of fraus “deceit, injury”
Explanation
A fraud is a something that deceives or tricks another person, usually to get their money. Frauds are dishonest. A fraud is something that sounds too good to be true — because it isn't. If you're promised millions of dollars by anyone on the Internet, that's got to be a fraud. Anyone trying to sell you a bridge is committing fraud. Identity theft is a type of fraud. Democrats and Republicans frequently accuse the other party of fraud when it comes to counting votes. You can also tell a person who is fake or an impostor is a fraud.
Vocabulary lists containing fraud
A Web of Lies
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The Best Starting Words for Wordle
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Smoke and Mirrors: The Lingo of Illusion and Deception
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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:
It was a good start, but states still have little incentive to attack abuse and fraud since they receive more money from the feds the more they spend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026
They said because Which?'s listing was not "live" on its site across the two months it was present, "some of our automatic fraud controls were not triggered to completely remove the closed listing".
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
The emergency school closures were part of a federal partnership to crack down on fraud and illegal practices in the commercial trucking industry.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 31, 2026
He later served time in prison, pleading guilty to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and other charges, but President Donald Trump commuted his sentence in October 2025.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2026
To Michael Burry, the subprime mortgage market looked increasingly like a fraud perpetrated by a handful of subprime bond trading desks.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
But the line between frauds and scams can be blurry in practice, according to a February letter that Lillie’s lawyer at the time sent to multiple Senate committees to describe her allegations.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Nowadays, it’s mostly a financial crime, with industry publications documenting a dozen or more alleged frauds in some years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
The idea is to get people meeting in person as quickly as possible because online dating has become a minefield littered with deception and frauds.
From BBC ● May 21, 2026
I need to pause here to point out that hype and urgency are key ingredients in frauds.
From MarketWatch ● May 12, 2026
The field swarmed with charming frauds and con men, such as Cagliostro and the Count of Saint-Germain, who pretended not only to transmute the elements but also to hold the secret of immortality.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
