deepfake
/ˈdipˌfeɪk/noun, verb
deepfake is a noun meaning “A convincingly realistic but fake image, video, or audio created with the use of artificial intelligence, especially one that imposes the face of one…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled D-E-E-P-F-A-K-E and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 31 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of deepfake is deepfakes.
What does deepfake mean?
noun
- 1
A convincingly realistic but fake image, video, or audio created with the use of artificial intelligence, especially one that imposes the face of one person onto the body of someone else.
Did you see that leaked sex tape with the actress? It turned out to be a deepfake, but it looked so realistic!
verb
- 1
To create or turn into a deepfake; to impersonate someone with a deepfake.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce deepfake?
- UK /ˈdiːp.feɪk/
- US /ˈdipˌfeɪk/
Deepfake has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Forms of deepfake
- deepfakes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- deepfaking participle, present
- deepfaked participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is deepfake?
Deepfake appears about once in every 31 million words in written English, the 169,822nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Deepfake in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense photograph or video created using artificial intelligence:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | deepfake, hypertrucage, hypercherie |
| German | Deepfake |
| Portuguese | deepfake |
| Spanish | ultrafalso |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does deepfake come from?
Blend of deep learning + fake. Coined in 2017 by Redditor u/deepfakes (account created on September 26, 2017), who had created a technique which could convincingly swap someone's face in a video using deep learning. The r/deepfakes subreddit was created on November 2, 2017. The word was first used as a noun and verb around December 2017.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).