Word of the Day: Bogus | Merriam-Webster Menu Toggle Merriam-Webster Logo Games Word of the Day Grammar Wordplay Slang Rhymes Word Finder Thesaurus Join MWU More Games Word of the Day Grammar Wordplay Slang Rhymes Word Finder Thesaurus Join MWU Shop Books Merch Log In Username My Words Recents Account Log Out Est. 1828 Word of the Day : June 4, 2025 bogus play adjective BOH-gus Prev Next What It Means Bogus is an informal word used to describe something that is not real or genuine, making it a synonym of such words as fake, false, and counterfeit. // We were disappointed to find out that the purses we bought were bogus. // The company was investigated over several bogus claims that their products could guarantee better health for their customers. See the entry > bogus in Context “A former West Covina resident admitted to selling at least $250,000 in bogus sports and entertainment memorabilia, including forged photos and signatures of the ‘Keeping Up With the Kardashians’ stars.” — Noah Goldberg, The Los Angeles Times, 9 Apr. 2025 Build your vocabulary! Get Word of the Day in your inbox every day. Test Your Vocabulary Fashionable Words Which of these items is named for a deadly weapon? Stiletto heel Fedora hat Henley shirt Brogue shoes Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz! TAKE THE QUIZ Pick the best words! PLAY Did You Know? In her 1840 novel A New Home—Who’ll Follow?, author Carolina Kirkland wrote about a scandal affecting the fictitious frontier town of Tinkerville, whose bank vaults were discovered to contain “a heavy charge of broken glass and tenpenny nails, covered above and below with half-dollars, principally ‘bogus.’ Alas! for Tinkerville, and alas, for poor Michigan!” Alas indeed. Bogus (an apparent U.S. coinage) was first used in the argot of wildcat banks (like the one in Tinkerville) as a noun referring to counterfeit money. It later branched out into adjective use meaning “counterfeit or forged.” Although the noun is now obsolete, the adjective is still used today with the same meaning, and is applied not only to phony currency but to anything that is less than genuine, making it part of a treasury of similar words ranging from the very old (sham) to the fairly new (fugazi). Test Your Vocabulary with M-W Quizzes Quiz: Foreign Phrases You Should Know Play Now Quiz: Sounds Like... Play Now Contradictory Words Quiz Play Now Guess the Color Quiz Play Now Fastest Quiz Ever: Missing Link Play Now Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Play Now Quiz Unscramble the letters to create an adjective that describes an artificial and inferior substitute or imitation: TREZAS. VIEW THE ANSWER Podcast More Words of the Day Jun 03 tutelage Jun 02 Herculean Jun 01 proscribe May 31 opportune May 30 gust May 29 nascent SEE ALL WORDS OF THE DAY Can you solve 4 words at once? Play Play Can you solve 4 words at once? Play Play Love words? Need even more definitions? Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free! Merriam-Webster unabridged Games & Quizzes See All Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once? Play Blossom Word Game Pick the best words! Play Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist Play Quiz: Foreign Phrases You Should Know Check out your bona fides and avoid any faux pas. Take the quiz See All Merriam Webster Learn a new word every day. Delivered to your inbox! Help About Us Advertising Info Contact Us Privacy Policy Terms of Use Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram © 2025 Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

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