feign

/feɪn/

feign verb: to make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.

Verb

feign (third-person singular simple present feigns, present participle feigning, simple past and past participle feigned)

To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
- The pupil feigned sickness on the day of his exam.
- They feigned her signature on the cheque.
Synonyms:

front, put on airs
To imagine; to invent; to pretend to do something.
- He feigned that he had gone home at the appointed time.
- Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.1611, King James Translators, Nehemiah 6:8
To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent; to feint.
- Cahill was beaten far too easily for Miller's goal, although the striker deserves the credit for the way he controlled Alan Hutton's right-wing delivery, with his back to goal, feigned to his left then went the other way and pinged a splendid left-foot shot into Hart's bottom right-hand corner.14 August 2013, Daniel Taylor, “Rickie Lambert's debut goal gives England victory over Scotland”, in The Guardian

feign meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

feign in Hindi

to make a false show: स्वाँग svāṅg
to imagine, to invent, to pretend; to give a mental existence to something: स्वाँग svāṅg

feign in Urdu

to feign, innovate, invent: اختراع کرنا ixtirā karnā

feign in Malayalam

to feign: കളിക്കുക kaḷikkuka

More languagesFewer languages

feign in Kannada: ಸೋಗುಹಾಕು, ಕತೆಕಟ್ಟು, ನಟನೆ ಮಾಡು, ಸೋಗು ಹಾಕು
feign in Nepali: छल्नु chalnu, छक्क्याउनु chakkyāunu
feign in Arabic: تَظَاهَرَ taẓāhara, اِخْتَلَقَ iḵtalaqa, تَصَنَّعَ taṣannaʕa, وَرَّى warrā

Examples of feign in a sentence

I've never left my key ring in anyone's fruit bowl.' I feign outrage.
You get a cold smackdown if you don't at least feign badassness and say you've smoked weed.
Weaponized incompetence, also known as strategic incompetence, refers to the deliberate feigning of incompetence to avoid certain tasks or responsibilities.

All 16 example sentences with feign

Synonyms of feign

Forms of feign

third-person singular present	feigns
present participle	feigning
past participle	feigned
past	feigned

Past tense of feign: feigned

Origin of feign

From Middle English feynen, feinen, borrowed from Old French feindre (“to pretend”), from Latin fingere (“to form, shape, invent”). Compare French feignant (present participle of feindre, literally “feigning”). Also compare feint, figment and fiction.

Words formed from feign

Words that rhyme with feign

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about feign

What does feign mean?: Feign means to make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
What is feign in Hindi?: Feign in Hindi is स्वाँग (svāṅg). See Feign meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is feign?: Feign is a verb.
How do you pronounce feign?: Feign is pronounced /feɪn/.
What is the past tense of feign?: The past tense of feign is feigned.

Words near feign in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: feign (page history and authors); feign (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اختراع کرنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); കളിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); feign (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); छक्क्याउनु (Nepali) (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-fane.ogg.

Cite this entry: “feign.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/feign. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.