PHONY
What does "PHONY" mean?
Not genuine; fake, fraudulent, or insincere.
Meanings
- False or counterfeit; not what it claims to be. He paid with a phony twenty-dollar bill. informal
- Insincere or pretentious in manner. Her enthusiasm felt phony. informal
- A person who is insincere or a fraud. He's a phony - he name-drops people he's never met. informal
Did you know?
- 'Phony' likely traces to a con called the 'fawney rig', where a swindler sold a cheap brass ring as gold - the word for fakeness was itself born from a fake.
Word origin
Probably from 'fawney', British slang for a gilt brass ring sold as gold in a con called the 'fawney rig', from Irish 'fáinne' (ring); the spelling shifted to 'phony' in American English.
Remember it
PHONY looks like PHONE with the truth hung up - all sound, no substance.
A little poem
The brass ring gleamed as gold against the light,
and so did he, and so did every night.
couplet
Wordplay
- I sold a guy a fake telephone. He called it phony. I called it accurate.
What it teaches
What works hardest to look real is usually the thing least worth trusting.
Quick facts
What does PHONY mean?
Not genuine; fake, fraudulent, or insincere.
Is PHONY a valid word?
Yes — PHONY is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is PHONY?
PHONY has 5 letters and 2 syllables.
Where does PHONY come from?
Probably from 'fawney', British slang for a gilt brass ring sold as gold in a con called the 'fawney rig', from Irish 'fáinne' (ring); the spelling shifted to 'phony' in American English.
What can PHONY teach us?
What works hardest to look real is usually the thing least worth trusting.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.