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PlainSpell

feint

/feɪnt/noun, verb, adjective

feint is spelled F-E-I-N-T: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 51,738th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “faint vs feint” about 1,000 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, feint means “A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of feint is feints.

How many letters and syllables are in feint?

Letters5: F-E-I-N-T
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 3 million words; the 51,738th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with

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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is feint?

Feint appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 51,738th 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 feint?

  • US /feɪnt/

Feint 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-feint.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with feint

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

faint vs feint1,000 G

Sounds like: faint (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).

What rhymes with feint?

2 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as feint from its last stressed vowel (/eɪnt/):

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of feint

  • feints plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • feinting participle, present
  • feinted participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does feint mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A movement made to confuse an opponent; a dummy.

  2. 2

    A blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.

  3. 3

    Something feigned; a false or pretend appearance; a pretence or stratagem.

verb

  1. 1

    To direct (a blow, thrust, or other offensive movement resembling an attack) on some part of the body, intended to distract from a real attack on another part.

  2. 2

    rareTo direct a feint or mock attack against (someone).

  3. 3

    To make a feint or mock attack.

adjective

  1. 1

    Of an attack or offensive movement: directed toward a different part from the intended strike.

  2. 2

    obsoleteFeigned, counterfeit, fake.

  3. 3

    Of lines printed on paper as a handwriting guide: not bold; faint, light; also, of such paper: ruled with faint lines of this sort.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Feint in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfeinte (movement made to confuse an opponent), feinter (to make a feint or mock attack)
GermanFinte (movement made to confuse an opponent), fintieren (to make a feint or mock attack)
Portuguesefinta, drible (movement made to confuse an opponent), lançar um ataque simulado, simular (to make a feint or mock attack)
Spanishfinta, amago (movement made to confuse an opponent), amagar, fintar, fintear (to make a feint or mock attack)

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 feint come from?

The noun is borrowed from French feinte (“dummy, feint”), from feindre (“to fake, feign”), from Old French feindre, faindre, from Latin fingere, the present active infinitive of fingō (“to alter the truth to deceive, dissemble, feign, pretend; to fashion, form, shape”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after feint