Home › Words › P › phonyphony/ˈfoʊni/phony means fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance.Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, phony ranks #2,710 of 42,749 for Qualifying.phony is pronounced /ˈfoʊni/.EtymologyOf unknown origin. Perhaps an alteration of fawny (“gilt brass ring used by swindlers”) (1781), from Irish fáinne (“ring”).adjFraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance.e.g.“A good jeweler should be able to tell a real stone from a phony one.”nounA person who assumes an identity or quality other than their own.e.g.“He claims to be a doctor, but he's nothing but a fast-talking phony.”A person who professes beliefs or opinions that they do not hold.e.g.“He's such a phony, he doesn't believe half of what he says.”Anything fraudulent or fake.e.g.“One name was a phony, but the other was the true name. The clerk remembered the man who had filed the tags since he acquired two sets of plates with different names.” — 2013, John E. Douglas, Ann W. Burgess, Allen G. Burgess, Crime Classification Manual, page 131:verbTo fake.Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).