hoax
Americannoun
-
hoaxes
plural
verb (used with object)
-
hoaxes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
hoaxed,
past participle, past
-
hoaxing
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
hoaxsimple
-
hoaxessimple
-
have hoaxedperfect
-
has hoaxedperfect
-
am hoaxingprogressive
-
are hoaxingprogressive
-
is hoaxingprogressive
-
have been hoaxingperfect progressive
-
has been hoaxingperfect progressive
Past
-
hoaxedsimple
-
had hoaxedperfect
-
was hoaxingprogressive
-
were hoaxingprogressive
-
had been hoaxingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hoax
First recorded in 1790–1800; perhaps contraction of hocus
Explanation
If you put on big fake feet, stomp through your muddy backyard and tell everyone you saw Bigfoot fixing a steak on your grill, you are playing a hoax on your friends. Hoax is believed to be a shortened version of hocus pocus, thus conveying the feeling of trickery and sleight of hand. April First, also known as April Fools' Day, is a day of hoaxes. Successful hoaxes in history: Orson Welles' War-of-the-Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 and the alien autopsy film footage made public in the 1990s. Do you believe the American moon landing in 1969 was a hoax? You're not alone. Six percent of Americans believe this event was staged.
Vocabulary lists containing hoax
Tricky Terms for April Fool's Day
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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
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Stargirl
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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:
While police say it's a hoax, Anna's family have vanished.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
After roughly two days of investigation, police informed the public the entire panic was driven by a hoax.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Despite developing the machine with scientists, Ernetti’s claims of what he saw — including Christ’s crucifixion — quickly became sensationalized fodder, with some believing in Ernetti’s discovery and others dismissing it as a hoax.
From Salon ● Sep. 7, 2026
But addressing the hoax while on a visit to the central English city of Wolverhampton, Burnham said nothing sensitive had been discussed in the messages.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
They fear to swallow a great hoax in public, a hoax already refused by Karhide, a hoax perhaps even invented by Karhide.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
He spoke of an "episode in which numerous actors and interests converge", doubling down on his assertion that hoaxes and rumours spread by social media had sparked the crisis.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
She finds out about these hoaxes when job seekers call to follow up on overtures they received from “Sarah Englade.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
Fox, who has been living with Parkinson’s for more than 30 years, has been the subject of death hoaxes over the years.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026
He posted online about his ordeal to raise the alarm about increasingly sophisticated online hoaxes.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
MACUSA’s Department of No-Maj Misinformation has put in extensive work to convince Muggles that sightings of Hodags have been hoaxes.
From "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by J.K. Rowling
In May 2010, Lloyd thought he was being hoaxed when an agent finally agreed to work with him.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2023
Even odder: Te’o himself had been hoaxed, because he’d never met the person he thought he was dating.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2022
In 1996 Diana was hoaxed by the broadcaster Victor-Lewis-Smith posing as Stephen Hawking.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 11, 2020
In another case, a person with medical problems had been promised a ride to Portland and was upset to find out they had been hoaxed.
From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2019
We have been hoaxed along by comparable substitutes for technology right up to the present.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
The author’s precise style is crisp as ever but with a wider emotional reach, exploring teenage friendship, imagination, hoaxing, propriety and rebellion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 4, 2022
They devised a political education program, where many folks contemplated the use of hoaxing as a mechanism for social protest.
From Scientific American ● Oct. 12, 2020
“The hoaxing charge is problematic for Callimachi and the Times,” Wemple wrote.
From Fox News ● Sep. 29, 2020
It’s really trying to explore the different ways that we’ve done that over history, and trying to understand how we, as Americans specifically, think about hoaxing and is hoaxing something American?
From Slate ● Nov. 21, 2017
This "greenness," as he called it, gave Archie immense delight, and he was never tired of mystifying and hoaxing the sweet-tempered little girl, who never resented his quizzings and practical jokes.
From Stories of Many Lands by Grace Greenwood
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.
