Adjective: fake
Comparison Forms
Synthetic
| Comparative | faker |
| Superlative | fakest |
Perifrastic
| Comparative | more fake |
| Superlative | most fake |
Sample Sentences
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Which fur coat looks fake?
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Seeing Rossano Brazzi play an aristocratic White Russian, standing in the fakest snow that wartime supplies could buy, may be the most peculiar twist of all in the curious story of how Ayn Rand's autobiographical first novel came to the screen. [1988 November 25, Caryn James, “Ayn Rand Adaptation By Italian”, in The New York Times:]
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The truth panic had the unwelcome side-effect of emboldening those it sought to oppose. “Fake” was one of Trump’s favourite slap-downs, especially to news outlets that reported unwelcome facts about him and his associates. A booming Maga media further amplified the president’s lies and denials. [2025 October 2, William Davies, “A critique of pure stupidity: understanding Trump 2.0”, in The Guardian:]
Adjectives inflected like fake
serene,
severe,
secure,
sedate,
wheelie,
simple,
complete,
fulsome,
sprightlie,
discrete,
plosive,
bizarre,
brusque,
brittle,
wholesome,
sincere,
shystie,
loveable,
prophane,
terrible, etc. (List truncated at 20 adjectives)
Etymology
1. The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775 C.E. in British criminals' slang. It is probably from feak, feague (“to give a better appearance through artificial means, spruce up, embellish”), itself from German Low German fegen, from Middle Low German vēgen, from Old Saxon fegōn, from Proto-West Germanic *fegōn (“to clean up, polish”).
2. Akin to Dutch veeg (“a swipe”), Dutch vegen (“to sweep, wipe”); German fegen (“to sweep, to polish”). Compare also Old English fācn (“deceit, fraud”). Perhaps related also to Old Norse fjúka (“to fade, vanquish, disappear”), Old Norse feikn (“strange, scary, unnatural”). See: Dutch Adjectives '
veeg'.
Verbs referencing "fake"
German Adjectives
fake, Spanish Adjectives
fake, Finnish Adjectives
feikki.