# feign

> English word · Verb · IPA /feɪn/ · frequency rank #48,234

## Definitions
1. To make a false show or pretence of; to counterfeit or simulate.
2. To imagine; to invent; to pretend to do something.
3. To make an action as if doing one thing, but actually doing another, for example to trick an opponent; to feint.

## Etymology
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 and fiction.

## Easily confused with
- **fig** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-fig)
- **fin** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-fin)
- **fen** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-fen)
- **Finn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-finn)
- **figs** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-figs)
- **feng** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-feng)
- **fern** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-fern)
- **Fein** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-fein)
- **Fenn** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-fenn)
- **felon** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-felon)
- **foreign** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-foreign)
- **feigned** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/feign-vs-feigned)
- **FEI** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/fei-vs-feign)

## Common misspellings (7)
`efign`, `fegin`, `feiggn`, `feignn`, `feing`, `ffeign`, `fiegn`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/feign