feign
verb
Simple meaning
To pretend something is true, often to trick someone.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
faynIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfeɪn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent; to feint.
To imagine; to invent; to pretend to do something.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
Used this way, feign is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use feign
- “He feigned that he had gone home at the appointed time.”verb
- “The pupil feigned sickness on the day of his exam.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.