bogus
Syllables: bo·gus/ˈbəʊ̯ɡəs//ˈboʊ̯ɡəs/
bogus adjective: counterfeit or fake; not genuine.
Adjective
bogus (comparative more bogus, superlative most bogus)
- Counterfeit or fake; not genuine.
- He was arrested for trying to cash a bogus check at the bank.
- […] that he and David Whitmer swore falsley, stole, cheated, lied, sold bogus money, (base coin,), and also stones and sand for bogus; that letters in the post-office had been opened, read, and destroyed; and that those same men were concerned with a gang of counterfeiters, coiners, and blacklegs.1842, Daniel Parish Kidder, Mormonism and the Mormons: A Historical View of the Rise and Progress of the Sect Self-styled Latter-Day Saints, Carlton & Lanahan
- Synonyms:
- phony, artificial, bad, bollocks, concocted, counterfeit, ersatz, fabricated, false, falsified
- Undesirable or harmful.
- What Jefferson was saying was, Hey! You know, we left this England place 'cause it was bogus; so if we don't get some cool rules ourselves - pronto - we'll just be bogus too! Get it?1982, Cameron Crowe, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, spoken by Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn)
- Incorrect, useless, or broken.
- Of a totally fictitious issue printed for collectors, often issued on behalf of a non-existent territory or country (not to be confused with forgery, which is an illegitimate copy of a genuine stamp).
- Bogus stamps are labels made to deceive stamp collectors. Many bogus stamps were made prior to 1900 when some had names of imaginary countries.1962, Douglas Patrick, The International Guide to Stamps and Stamp Collecting: Includes the Answers to 1200 Questions Most Often Asked about Stamps
- Synonyms:
- illegal
- Based on false or misleading information or unjustified assumptions.
- bogus laws
Noun
bogus (uncountable)
- A liquor made of rum and molasses.
- BOGUS. A liquor made of rum and molasses.1848, John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms: A glossary of words and phrases, usually regarded as peculiar to the United States
- "Calibogus," or "bogus" was cold rum and beer unsweetened.1919, Harvey Washington Wiley, Beverages and Their Adulteration: Origin, Composition, Manufacture, Natural, Artificial, Fermented, Distilled, Alkaloidal and Fruit Juices
- Counterfeit money.
- “Ahem—it is the opinion of the court that the prisoner has been making bogus; so we must put him in the jug until Superior Court.[…]”1841 December 8, “Western Court Eloquence”, in Carlisle Weekly Herald, page 2
- There is not a merchant in this city but knows this fact, and also that there has been a large quantity of bogus in circulation.1846, Joseph H. Jackson, The Adventures and Experience of Joseph H. Jackson: Disclosing the Depths of Mormon Villainy Practiced in Nauvoo, page 15
Proper noun capitalized: Bogus
Bogus (plural Boguses)
- A surname.
bogus meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam
bogus in Hindi
- bogus
- जाली jālī
bogus in Tamil
- பொய்யான, போலியான, நகலான, மோசடியான, உண்மையல்லாத, பாசாங்கான
bogus in Urdu
- کھوٹا, نقلی
bogus in Malayalam
- വ്യാജമായ
More languagesFewer languages
- bogus in Kannada
- ಹುಸಿ, ನಕಲಿಯಾದ, ಖೋಟಾ, ಮೋಸದ
- bogus in Arabic
- زَائِف zāʔif, كَاذِب kāḏib, مُزَوَّر muzawwar
- bogus in Indonesian
- gadungan
Examples of bogus in a sentence
- They have printed bogus despatches, and unhesitatingly used what they knew was bogus matter in a way to mislead even newspaper men.1895, Alphonso Alva Hopkins, Wealth and Waste: The Principles of Political Economy in Their Application to the Present Problems of Labor...
- The organization of “bogus companies,” started purely for the purpose of eliminating competitors, seems to have been a not infrequent practice.1921, Burton J. Hendrick, The Age of Big Business:
- They combined it with a list of ingredients: rum mixed with hard cider was called stonewall; rum and beer made bogus; rum and molasses made blackstrap.2014, J. Anne Funderburg, Bootleggers and Beer Barons of the Prohibition Era, page 311:
- This new way of passing bogus they have practised to a considerable extent […]1848 January 26, C. C., “[Letter]”, in The Washington Union, published 28 February 1848, page 3:
Synonyms of bogus
21 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of bogus
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more bogus |
| superlative | most bogus |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Boguses |
Origin of bogus
First attested as an underworld term for an apparatus for creating counterfeit coins, then the coins themselves. Later, the word was applied to anything of poor quality. The newest use to mean useless is probably from the slang of computer hackers. The origin is unknown, but there are at least two theories that try to trace its origin: * From Hausa boko (“to fake”). Since bogus first appeared in the United States, it may be possible that its ancestor was brought there on a slave ship. * From criminal slang as a short form of tantrabogus, a 19th-century slang term for a menacing object, making some believe that bogus might be linked to bogy or bogey (see bogeyman). In this sense, Bogus might be related to Bogle – a traditional trickster from the Scottish Borders, noted for achieving acts of household trickery; confusing, but not usually damaging.
Borrowed from Polish Bogus, Boguś, or Romanian Boguș.
Words formed from bogus
Words that rhyme with bogus
Questions about bogus
- What does bogus mean?
- Bogus means counterfeit or fake; not genuine.
- What is bogus in Hindi?
- Bogus in Hindi is जाली (jālī). See Bogus meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use bogus in a sentence?
- They have printed bogus despatches, and unhesitatingly used what they knew was bogus matter in a way to mislead even newspaper men.
- What part of speech is bogus?
- Bogus can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bogus?
- Bogus is pronounced /ˈbəʊ̯ɡəs/ (UK).
Words near bogus in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bogus (page history and authors); Bogus (page history and authors); जाली (Hindi) (page history and authors); bogus (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bogus (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bogus (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bogus (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-bogus.wav, en-us-bogus.ogg, en-au-bogus.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bogus.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bogus. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.