feign
/feɪn/verb
feign is spelled F-E-I-G-N: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “fain vs feign” about 20 times a month (Google, United States). As a verb, feign means “To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in feign?
| Letters | 5: F-E-I-G-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words; the 48,230th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How common is feign?
Feign appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 48,230th 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).
How do you pronounce feign?
- /feɪn/
Feign has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-fane.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-feign.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with feign
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: fain, fane (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
Forms of feign
- feigns present, singular, he/she/it
- feigning participle, present
- feigned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does feign mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 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: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Feign in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | feindre |
| German | vorgeben, vortäuschen, vormachen, fingieren , ausdenken , verheimlichen |
| Portuguese | fingir, dissimular, aparentar , inventar, imaginar , omitir |
| Spanish | aparentar, hacer el papel, hacer papel |
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 feign come from?
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.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).