spoof
Americannoun
-
spoofs
plural
-
a mocking imitation of someone or something, usually light and good-humored; lampoon or parody.
The show was a spoof of college life.
-
a hoax; prank.
verb (used with object)
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spoofs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
spoofed,
past participle, past
-
spoofing
present participle
-
to mock (something or someone) lightly and good-humoredly; kid.
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to fool by a hoax; play a trick on, especially one intended to deceive.
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to trick (electronic devices, as radar), by interrupting or otherwise corrupting data in order to avoid detection.
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Digital Technology. to misrepresent (the identity of a party or the origin of data) in a communication, in order to misdirect digital authentication or other security measures: Suspects spoofed caller ID when they phoned in the anonymous threats.
Hackers spoofed the IP to fool the network into providing access.
Suspects spoofed caller ID when they phoned in the anonymous threats.
The sender’s email address was spoofed to fool the company’s spam filters.
verb (used without object)
-
spoofs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
spoofed,
past participle, past
-
spoofing
present participle
noun
-
a mildly satirical mockery or parody; lampoon
a spoof on party politics
-
a good-humoured deception or trick; prank
verb
-
to indulge in a spoof of (a person or thing)
-
to communicate electronically under a false identity
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
spoofsimple
-
spoofssimple
-
have spoofedperfect
-
has spoofedperfect
-
am spoofingprogressive
-
are spoofingprogressive
-
is spoofingprogressive
-
have been spoofingperfect progressive
-
has been spoofingperfect progressive
Past
-
spoofedsimple
-
had spoofedperfect
-
was spoofingprogressive
-
were spoofingprogressive
-
had been spoofingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of spoof
First recorded in 1885–90; after a game invented and named by Arthur Roberts (1852–1933), British comedian
Explanation
A spoof is a funny version of something, like a movie or a book. The classic comedy "Young Frankenstein" is a spoof of earlier, serious film adaptations of the famous novel. You can also call a spoof a parody. A spoof borrows material from the original, copying the style and characteristics that make it obvious what the subject of the spoof is. Movies like "Spaceballs," a spoof of the "Star Wars" films, and "Scary Movie," which spoofs the entire horror film genre, are great examples. Spoof originally meant "hoax," and it comes from a game, Spouf, invented by a British comedian in 1884.
Vocabulary lists containing spoof
Lesson 3
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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:
The full 60-second video was meant to spoof the horror movie “Obsession,” released earlier this summer, he said, but “missed the mark.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
He produced David Lynch’s 1980 drama “The Elephant Man,” while Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 horror classic “Psycho” inevitably calls to mind Brooks’ 1977 Hitchcock spoof “High Anxiety.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
The brothers produced the 1950s-style spy spoof "OSS 117" series and cult comedy "Brice de Nice", as well as a thriller based on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power, "Conquest".
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
The photo was, in fact, a computer-generated spoof; the real sign is covered simply with fabric.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026
This reminded Jonah of a spoof he’d seen once in MAD magazine that was supposed to teach kids how to lie convincingly.
From "Found" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
It never disappointed us for a laugh with its great cast and their recurring characters and movie spoofs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 18, 2026
Her performances during her three rounds on Friday quickly lit up the internet, with users creating a sea of memes and video spoofs, questioning everything from her outfit to her qualification.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2024
Tech experts say that as A.I. tools become more accessible and easier to use, audio spoofs and videos with realistic avatars could be created in mere minutes.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2024
And, in recent years, it inspired a string of spoofs, in which Cyrus impersonators donned similar get-ups while swinging and singing on their own makeshift wrecking ball.
From Salon ● Sep. 10, 2023
I can't say more without endangering the effect of Captain COKE'S ingenious shifts and spoofs.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 153, October 17, 1917 by Various
Actor Will Ferrell, whose 2020 film “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” memorably spoofed the competition, recorded a short video shown at the semifinal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
Late-night TV host Stephen Colbert spoofed Endless Shrimp’s return, and Red Lobster sent a bunch of swag to the show’s writers in response.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
The first trailer "spoofed everything from Star Wars to Avatar to Harry Potter", according to Variety's report from the screening.
From BBC ● Apr. 17, 2026
The experts were confident that the majority of the vessels were real and not spoofed, which is when AIS data is manipulated to give misleading information about a vessel's location or identity.
From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026
I hope they didn't feel they had been spoofed, as Maeterlinck so basely spoofed them in The Blue Bird, by offering them a grown-ups' play "sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought."
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, January 5, 1916 by Sir Owen Seaman
On Wednesday, OpenAI disclosed six new instances of its AI agents hiding their tracks, spoofing data and writing instructions to free themselves from constraints to escape the company’s control.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026
Ukrainian drones bound for targets inside Russia are sometimes diverted by jammers or GPS spoofing; one struck an Estonian power station earlier this year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026
And where does he fit into the British tradition of spoofing politicians?
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
For its upcoming Los Angeles venue, experiential art firm Meow Wolf will focus on the art of storytelling, with a specific eye toward spoofing our city’s moviemaking magic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Hackers, predictably, responded by forming a "Lumber Cartel" spoofing this paranoid theory; the web page is http://come.to/the.lumber.cartel.
From The Jargon File, Version 4.2.2, 20 Aug 2000 by Guy L. Steele
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.
