Fain or feign?
fain is an adjective meaning “Often followed by of: glad, well-pleased”; feign is a verb meaning “To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate”. They sound the same (/feɪn/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) feign is about as common as fain.
What is the difference between fain and feign?
| fain | feign | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, adverb, verb | verb |
| Meaning | To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate To imagine; to invent; to pretend to do something | |
| Example | none recorded | The pupil feigned sickness on the day of his exam |
| Forms | fainer, fainest | feigns, feigning, feigned |
| Pronunciation | /feɪn/ | /feɪn/ |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words | about once in every 3 million words |
Sources: fain and feign in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of fain and feign
feign
- 1
To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate
The pupil feigned sickness on the day of his exam
- 2
To imagine; to invent; to pretend to do something
He feigned that he had gone home at the appointed time
- 3
To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent; to feint
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, fain or feign?
fain appears about once in every 3 million words; feign about once in every 3 million words.
fain about once in every 3 million wordsfeign about once in every 3 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search fain vs feign?
“fain vs feign” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“feign vs fain”, “fain or feign”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.