fraud

[frawd]
noun
1.
deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage.
2.
a particular instance of such deceit or trickery: mail fraud; election frauds.
3.
any deception, trickery, or humbug: That diet book is a fraud and a waste of time.
4.
a person who makes deceitful pretenses; sham; poseur.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English fraude < Old French < Medieval Latin fraud- (stem of fraus) deceit, injury

fraud·ful, adjective
fraud·ful·ly, adverb
an·ti·fraud, adjective
pre·fraud, noun


1. See deceit. 3. wile, hoax.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To fraud
00:10
Fraud is always a great word to know.
So is interrobang. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
Collins
World English Dictionary
fraud (frɔːd) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
n
1.  deliberate deception, trickery, or cheating intended to gain an advantage
2.  an act or instance of such deception
3.  something false or spurious: his explanation was a fraud
4.  informal a person who acts in a false or deceitful way
 
[C14: from Old French fraude, from Latin fraus deception]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

fraud
"criminal deception," mid-14c., from O.Fr. fraude, from L. fraudem (nom. fraus) "deceit, injury." The noun meaning "impostor, humbug" is attested from 1850. Pious fraud "deception practiced for the sake of what is deemed a good purpose" is from 1560s.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Example sentences
Surely if he's marketing his rubbish with false claims of medical efficacy he's
  committing fraud.
Social media is changing how state and local government elections are covered,
  including fraud or corruption reporting.
And the ability to restrict information is worse than a license to commit
  fraud, it is worse than terrorism.
For a hundred years that has been an almost unbroken record of fraud and
  peculation.
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