phony
or pho·ney
[ foh-nee ]
/ ˈfoʊ ni /
adjective, pho·ni·er, pho·ni·est.
not real or genuine; fake; counterfeit: a phony diamond.
false or deceiving; not truthful; concocted: a phony explanation.
insincere or deceitful; affected or pretentious: a phony sales representative.
noun, plural pho·nies.
something that is phony; a counterfeit or fake.
an insincere, pretentious, or deceitful person: He thought my friends were a bunch of phonies.
verb (used with object), pho·nied, pho·ny·ing.
to falsify; counterfeit; fabricate (often followed by up): to phony up a document.
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
phonoscope, phonotactic, phonotactics, phonotype, phonotypy, phony, phony disease, phony war, phony-baloney, phooey, phorate
Origin of phony
1895–1900; perhaps alteration and respelling of fawney (slang) finger ring (< Irish fsptáinne), if taken to mean “false” in the phrase fawney rig a confidence game in which a brass ring is sold as a gold one
Related formspho·ni·ly, adverbpho·ni·ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for phoniness
He was going nuts with frustration in the face of what he considered to be phoniness and untruth.
In Vice Presidential Debate, Joe Biden Perfects Art of the Smirk|Lee Siegel|October 13, 2012|DAILY BEAST
British Dictionary definitions for phoniness
phony
/ (ˈfəʊnɪ) /
adjective, noun -nier or -niest or plural -nies
a variant spelling (esp US) of phoney
Derived Formsphoniness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for phoniness
phony
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper