Word.ws English Dictionary

fake tan

fake tan noun: a substance, usually a lotion, cream, or oil, that contains chemicals which, when applied to the skin, react to give the appearance of a suntan.

fake tan: a substance, usually a lotion, cream, or oil, that contains chemicals which, when applied to the...
Image: Dennis Brown, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

fake tan (countable and uncountable, plural fake tans)

  1. (UK, countable) A substance, usually a lotion, cream, or oil, that contains chemicals which, when applied to the skin, react to give the appearance of a suntan.
    Synonyms:
    self-tanner
    1. (UK, uncountable) Darkening of the skin as a result of using such a substance.
      • See, I reckon you're about an eight or a nine
        Maybe even nine and a half in four beers' time
        That blue Topshop top you've got on, it is nice
        Bit too much fake tan, though, but yeah, you score high2004, “Fit But You Know It”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), A Grand Don't Come For Free, performed by The Streets

Synonyms of fake tan

Forms of fake tan

pluralfake tans

Questions about fake tan

What does fake tan mean?
Fake tan means a substance, usually a lotion, cream, or oil, that contains chemicals which, when applied to the skin, react to give the appearance of a suntan.
What part of speech is fake tan?
Fake tan is a noun.
What is the plural of fake tan?
The plural of fake tan is fake tans.

Words near fake tan in the dictionary

  1. fake news
  2. fake out
  3. fake PNG
  4. fake Shemp
  5. fake Shemps
  6. fake tan
  7. fake the fatcha
  8. fake the funk
  9. fake tree
  10. fake up
  11. fake-ass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fake tan (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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Cite this entry: “fake tan.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fake_tan. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.