forgery

American  

[fawr-juh-ree, fohr-] / ˈfɔr dʒə ri, ˈfoʊr- /

noun

plural

forgeries

1. 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.

2. the production of a spurious work that is claimed to be genuine, as a coin, a painting, or the like.

3. something, as a coin, a work of art, or a writing, produced by forgery.

4. an act of producing something forged.

5. Archaic. invention; artifice.

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forgery British  

/ ˈfɔːdʒərɪ /

noun

1. the act of reproducing something for a deceitful or fraudulent purpose

2. something forged, such as a work of art or an antique

3. 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

4. criminal law the counterfeiting of a seal or die with intention to defraud

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Etymology

Origin of forgery

First recorded in 1565–75; forge ¹ + -ery

Explanation

If you painted a copy of the Mona Lisa and sold it to a museum, claiming it was the original, your painting could be called a forgery, and the crime you've committed is also forgery. Forgery is a legal word describing a white-collar crime that could involve faking a famous painting, making a false passport that claims you're the King of Swaziland, or copying your boss's signature onto a document. Both the crime of forgery and the sense of forge that means "to make" or "to sculpt" come from the Latin root word fabricare, or "fabricate."

Example Sentences

In 2000, he published “The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Ancient Near Eastern Cultures,” in which he catalogued more than 1,250 suspicious artifacts around the world.

From Washington Post • Dec. 29, 2022

Initially, the pair were charged with offences under the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act as this was the law that seemed to capture the essence of what they had done in reusing the internal passwords.

From BBC • May 19, 2016

Forgery is important because it exposes the ideological character of aesthetic experience.

From The New Yorker • Apr. 1, 2015

In recent weeks, CNN has been topping its cable news competition with "Finding Jesus: Faith, Fact, Forgery," in which scientific and archaeological methods are used to examine physical evidence of Christ's existence.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 21, 2015

We had some discussion about the Forgery Bill.

From A Political Diary 1828-1830, Volume II by Ellenborough, Edward Law, Earl of

Related Words

• falsification