| / English Dictionary |
PHONY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected forms: phonier , phoniest
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives
Synonyms:
dissembler; dissimulator; hypocrite; phoney; phony; pretender
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("phony" is a kind of...):
beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "phony"):
charmer; smoothie; smoothy; sweet talker (someone with an assured and ingratiating manner)
Tartufe; Tartuffe (a hypocrite who pretends to religious piety (after the protagonist in a play by Moliere))
whited sepulcher; whited sepulchre (a person who is inwardly evil but outwardly professes to be virtuous)
Derivation:
phony (fraudulent; having a misleading appearance)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Fraudulent; having a misleading appearance
Synonyms:
bastard; bogus; fake; phoney; phony
Classified under:
Similar:
counterfeit; imitative (not genuine; imitating something superior)
Derivation:
phony (a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives)
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