fraud
noun
Simple meaning
The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
frawdIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈfɹɔd
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.
noun
law
The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved or unlawful gain.
The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.
A person who makes deceitful pretenses
A person who performs any such trick.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
Used this way, fraud is a specialist word with a clearly unfavourable pull. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Clinical and detached
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use fraud
- “The company was accused of fraud for misleading investors about its profits.”
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Fraud that is presumed from the circumstances although the one who commits it need not have had any evil intent.
Fraud that arises from a disparity between the instrument intended to be executed and the instrument actually executed.
Fraud which intentionally causes a person to execute an instrument or make an agreement or render a judgment.
Actual deceit.
Misrepresentation or alteration of the true results of an election.
Fraud that prevents a party from knowing their rights or from having a fair opportunity of presenting them at trial.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
An illegal enterprise (such as extortion or fraud or drug peddling or prostitution) carried on for profit.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “fraud” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
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.