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:
Mahender Makhijani, who was ordered to pay $1.34 billion in a Laguna Beach real estate arbitration, pleaded not guilty Monday to federal bank fraud charges in a separate criminal case.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026
Among the company’s biggest customers was Enron, the energy company that infamously filed for bankruptcy in 2001 after widespread internal fraud was uncovered.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2026
Some states are encouraging State Farm customers to stay vigilant against fraud.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
It began with a whistleblower inside Guggenheim Investments, the firm’s asset management arm, about possible accounting fraud in a Middle-East financing deal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
One unusual aspect was that the suspect already was in custody, arrested seven months earlier for insurance fraud and now incarcerated in Philadelphia’s Moyamensing Prison.
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
A congressional review in 1952 found that hundreds had been frauds.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 18, 2026
The cases against Lindberg, 55, centered on what prosecutors called “one of the biggest insurance frauds in history.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 26, 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
In the following months, Webb argued in incisive reports that both firms were likely frauds.
From Barron's ● Apr. 7, 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.
