counterfeit
Americanadjective
noun
-
an imitation intended to be passed off fraudulently or deceptively as genuine; forgery.
- Synonyms:
- sham, falsification
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Archaic. a copy.
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Archaic. a close likeness; portrait.
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Obsolete. impostor; pretender.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
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to make counterfeits, as of money.
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to feign; dissemble.
adjective
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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
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archaic an impostor; cheat
verb
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(tr) to make a fraudulent imitation of
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(intr) to make counterfeits
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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
-
counterfeitssimple
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have counterfeitedperfect
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has counterfeitedperfect
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am counterfeitingprogressive
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are counterfeitingprogressive
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is counterfeitingprogressive
-
have been counterfeitingperfect progressive
-
has been counterfeitingperfect progressive
Past
-
counterfeitedsimple
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had counterfeitedperfect
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was counterfeitingprogressive
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were counterfeitingprogressive
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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:
More than 220,000 pieces of football merchandise were recovered by the Police Intellectual Property Office as part of Operation Bloxwich, a UK police enforcement effort targeting counterfeit goods.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
The platform also did not "adequately" stop the sale of counterfeit products because its mandatory "brand authorisation" system "proved ineffective and understaffed. Therefore, traders easily bypassed this", the EU found.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 2026
The NHTSA, while acknowledging DTN’s counterfeit argument, banned the sale and import of air-bag inflaters bearing a part number associated with DTN.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
But repair shops opt for these counterfeit units, sometimes without realizing they are doing so, because they are much cheaper—as little as $100 from some online merchants.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 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
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
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
Tepper will buy Chinese look-alikes too as long as they’re not counterfeits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 2, 2025
It was found to be full of counterfeits of Calvin Klein, Walt Disney, Nike, Prada and other brands.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2025
Now, all the best things can be mimicked in the cheapest counterfeits!
From The Whole Armour of God by Jowett, John Henry
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
“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 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
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.
