forgery

[fawr-juh-ree, fohr-]

See more synonyms for forgery on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural for·ger·ies.

the crime of falsely making or altering a writing by which the legal rights or obligations of another person are apparently affected; simulated signing of another person's name to any such writing whether or not it is also the forger's name.
the production of a spurious work that is claimed to be genuine, as a coin, a painting, or the like.
something, as a coin, a work of art, or a writing, produced by forgery.

an act of producing something forged.
Archaic. invention; artifice.

Origin of forgery

First recorded in 1565–75; forge¹ + -ery

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for forgery

falsification, imposition, cheat, imposture, pseudo, phony, twin, imitation, fake, carbon, copy, fabrication, sham, fraudulence, bogus, imitating, lookalike

Examples from the Web for forgery

Contemporary Examples of forgery

But Colette sees a more serious problem with forgery, beyond the distorting effect forgery has on the art market.
Why eBay Is an Art Forger’s Paradise
Lizzie Crocker
August 19, 2014
On the other hand, if the text is a forgery, then it is a better forgery than previously thought.
The ‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’ is Still as Big a Mystery as Ever
Candida Moss
April 13, 2014
On the one hand, tests designed to prove that the text is a forgery failed to establish its inauthenticity.
The ‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’ is Still as Big a Mystery as Ever
Candida Moss
April 13, 2014
The single test that would definitively prove whether or not GJW is a forgery would also destroy it.
The ‘Gospel of Jesus’s Wife’ is Still as Big a Mystery as Ever
Candida Moss
April 13, 2014
Then again … as I said, for a forgery to deceive at all, it has to preserve a great many features of a genuine object.
Can A Fake Be As Good As Real?
Blake Gopnik
November 4, 2013

Historical Examples of forgery

I was arrested for forgery, tried, found guilty, and transported for life.
Henry Dunbar
M. E. Braddon
He had heard the story of the forgery hinted at, but he had never heard its details.
Henry Dunbar
M. E. Braddon
It never occurred to me then that it might have been intended to look like a forgery.
Wilfrid Cumbermede
George MacDonald
The excellence of the forgery may be fairly adduced as an argument that it is not a forgery at all.
Menexenus
Plato
Why, that must be the secretary who was suspected of forgery at the Embassy in London, and got dismissed.
The Eternal City
Hall Caine

British Dictionary definitions for forgery

forgery

noun plural -geries

the act of reproducing something for a deceitful or fraudulent purpose
something forged, such as a work of art or an antique
criminal law
1. the false making or altering of any document, such as a cheque or character reference (and including a postage stamp), or any tape or disc on which information is stored, intending that anyone shall accept it as genuine and so act to his or another's prejudice
2. something forged
criminal law the counterfeiting of a seal or die with intention to defraud

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for forgery

1570s, "a thing made fraudulently," from forge (n.) + -ery. Meaning "act of counterfeiting" is 1590s.