fakery
Art of pretense
Fakery is the practice of faking—creating deceptions, counterfeits, or false impressions.
The word emphasizes deliberate fabrication rather than innocent error: The medium's séances were exposed as pure fakery.
It covers a range from harmless theatrical illusion to serious fraud: special effects fakery, documentary fakery.
Creating fraudulent imitations
- replicaFaithful scaled reproduction
- phonyFraudulent person or thing
- bogusCounterfeit or fraudulent
- shamFraudulent imitation
knockoff · counterfeit · spurious · pirated · bootleg · unauthorized · cloned · copy
Deliberate deception or fraud
- hoaxDeliberate deception for effect
- swindleDeception for financial gain
- scamDishonest money-making scheme
- conArgument against
ruse · subterfuge · chicanery · duplicity · artifice · guile · charlatan · fraud
Criminal courtroom dishonesty
- mendacityDisposition to lie
- prevaricationMisleading speech avoiding directness
- misrepresentationFalse or misleading statement
- fabricationDeliberately untrue statement
untruthfulness · equivocation · falsehood · fib · whopper · tall-tale · cover-up · distortion
Adaptive resemblance to another
- copycatOne who mimics another
- simulationImitation of real processes
- mock-upPreliminary representational model
- duplicateExact replica of original
echo · parroting · aping · emulation · clone · pastiche · imitator · doppelganger
Atmospheric optical deception
- hallucinationPerception without external cause
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- figmentImagined thing, unreal
- chimeraUnrealistic fantasy or hybrid
fantasy · apparition · phantasm · unreality · hologram · vaporware · trompe-l'oeil · illusionist
forgery
Creating fraudulent imitations
sham · knockoff · counterfeit · spurious · pirated · bootleg · unauthorized · cloned · copy · duplication
trickery
Deliberate deception or fraud
- hoaxDeliberate deception for effect
- swindleDeception for financial gain
- scamDishonest money-making scheme
con · ruse · subterfuge · chicanery · duplicity · artifice · guile · charlatan · fraud · pretense
perjury
Criminal courtroom dishonesty
- mendacityDisposition to lie
- prevaricationMisleading speech avoiding directness
- misrepresentationFalse or misleading statement
fabrication · untruthfulness · equivocation · falsehood · fib · whopper · tall-tale · cover-up · distortion · embellishment
mimicry
Adaptive resemblance to another
- copycatOne who mimics another
- simulationImitation of real processes
- mock-upPreliminary representational model
duplicate · echo · parroting · aping · emulation · clone · pastiche · imitator · doppelganger · impersonation
mirage
Atmospheric optical deception
- hallucinationPerception without external cause
- delusionStubbornly held false belief
- figmentImagined thing, unreal
chimera · fantasy · apparition · phantasm · unreality · hologram · vaporware · trompe-l'oeil · illusionist · conjuring
- deceptionlie, lies, lying, fraud, cheat
- honestyhonesty, truthfulness, candor, sincerity, dishonesty
- pretendingpretend, pretending, feign, make-believe, simulate
- Reality vs Illusionmirage, hallucination, dream, fantasy, delusion
- fraudscam, fraud, swindle, con, deceive
- flashy fakessham, counterfeit, imitation, phony, faux
fakeryauthenticity
Quality of being genuine
genuineness · realness · legitimacy · the real thing · originality
fakeryhonesty
Truthfulness, sincerity
truthfulness · sincerity · candor · frankness · forthrightness
fakeryintegrity
Moral soundness and consistency
probity · trustworthiness · uprightness · righteousness · incorruptibility
- fake itPretend to know
- fake newsIntentionally deceptive media content
- fake smileFeigned expression of happiness
- fake teethArtificial replacement chompers
- fake IDFraudulent identity document
- fake outDeceptive maneuver to mislead