false heir
Illegitimate inheritance claimant
A false heir is someone who claims inheritance rights they don't legitimately possess—whether through fraud, mistaken identity, or disputed lineage.
The term appears in legal contexts and melodramatic fiction alike: The false heir had forged documents to claim the estate.
It can extend figuratively to anyone claiming a legacy or succession they haven't earned: Critics dismissed him as a false heir to the jazz tradition.
- impostorOne feigning another's identity
- pretenderIllegitimate claimant to power
- usurperIllegal power seizer
- claimantOne asserting entitlement
- power grabAttempt to seize control
bastard · illegitimate · throne · throne room · bloodline · deceiver · fraud · forged documents · birthright · blood right · succession · crown · dynasty · disinherited · scheming · rightful · pretense · counterfeit
- inheritanceinheritances, bequest, bequests, beneficiary, beneficiaries
- succession crisessuccession crisis, succession dispute, disputed succession, succession war, war of succession
false heirrightful heir
Person legally due inheritance
legitimate heir · legal heir · heir apparent · crown prince · natural heir
false, falsehood, falsely, falseness, falsify, falsification, falsity, heir, heiress