phony
or pho·ney
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.
something that is phony; a counterfeit or fake.
an insincere, pretentious, or deceitful person: He thought my friends were a bunch of phonies.
to falsify; counterfeit; fabricate (often followed by up): to phony up a document.
Origin of phony
1Other words for phony
Other words from phony
- pho·ni·ly, adverb
- pho·ni·ness, noun
Words Nearby phony
How to use phony in a sentence
My goal wasn’t to try to make phony, gourmet Hot Pockets—people have done that before and that didn’t interest me.
Why you should—or shouldn’t—DIY discontinued Hot Pockets | Purbita Saha | August 14, 2021 | Popular-SciencePerry, the former governor, who met Ellzey years earlier when he was a pilot with no political connections, relentlessly campaigned for the candidate and got earned media attacking the ads as phony.
The Trailer: Who sponsored this message? Why you're seeing so many ads so far from the midterms. | David Weigel | July 29, 2021 | Washington PostPennsylvania’s agency estimated that nearly 84% of its PUA claims were phony.
How Unemployment Insurance Fraud Exploded During the Pandemic | by Cezary Podkul | July 26, 2021 | ProPublicaThen, using his phony passport, Fred had flown up to Vancouver, leaving James behind with no good options.
As Amy strikes up an increasingly close relationship with Bilel, Profile becomes a portrait of the internet as a vehicle for forming both authentic and phony identities.
Tracing an ISIS Fighter’s Terrifying Seduction of a Female Journalist | Nick Schager | May 14, 2021 | The Daily Beast
It just gets a bit phony whenever she wavers and pretends otherwise.
He was arrested trying to flee to Jordan using phony identification.
Israeli Claim: Hamas Funded the Kidnapper Who Started the Gaza War | Eli Lake | August 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSurely they believe as well that the very concept of an ethnic nation “chosen” by God is phony and unjust.
This single program alone has generated tens of thousands of phony Twitterers.
Your Fake Followers Are Catfishing You: Bacon Mavens, Newt’s Fake Fans, and Other Social Media Scams | Charles Seife | July 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn 2012, Facebook announced that 83 million profiles—pushing 10 percent of the total number on the site—were phony.
Your Fake Followers Are Catfishing You: Bacon Mavens, Newt’s Fake Fans, and Other Social Media Scams | Charles Seife | July 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTI would even, I decided, stoop to having him thrown in jail on a phony charge, if that should be necessary.
Nine Men in Time | Noel Miller LoomisAnd you knew, right away, that Swami was a phony from Flatbush.
Sense from Thought Divide | Mark Irvin CliftonThe Swami was an obvious phony of the baldest fakery, yet he had something.
Sense from Thought Divide | Mark Irvin CliftonHe had less than a hundred credits, a knife, a deck of phony cards, and a yellow ticket.
Police Your Planet | Lester del ReyUnless the money is phony, or the pass is phony in which case the turnstile locks and all hell breaks loose.
The Syndic | C.M. Kornbluth
British Dictionary definitions for phony (1 of 2)
/ (ˈfəʊnɪ) /
Derived forms of phony
- phoniness, noun
British Dictionary definitions for -phony (2 of 2)
indicating a specified type of sound: cacophony; euphony
Origin of -phony
2Derived forms of -phony
- -phonic, adj combining form
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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