SYNONYMS AND RELATED EXPRESSIONS
counterfeit
adjective
Made to imitate something genuine with the intention of deceiving.
Local English device voice, when available. This is not a recorded dictionary pronunciation.
Imitating the genuine
Closest synonyms
Related words and expressions
These extend or explain the idea and may require a different sentence structure.
Usage distinction
Return to topImitation may be openly acknowledged; counterfeit implies an attempt to pass for the genuine item.
CHECK THE MEANING IN CONTEXT
See counterfeit in use
The collector discovered that the supposedly rare coin was counterfeit.
The theater's fictional mystery script included a charade in which two characters staged a supposedly spontaneous discovery that they had planned together. Their spurious claim of finding a lost collector's note depended on a counterfeit document made to imitate the collector's handwriting.
Compare an alternative with the original word in each passage. Shared meanings do not make every pair interchangeable.
Synonym reference scope and sources
The groups distinguish the senses selected for this study entry. Closest synonyms and broader related expressions have separate labels. The listed sources support lexical selection; not every phrase is a direct quotation from a source.
How the synonym reference was prepared / WordNet 3.0 license