What does feigned mean?
"Feigned" is an adjective describing something pretended or simulated rather than genuine — an emotion, reaction, or state deliberately put on to create an impression. A feigned smile masks disappointment, feigned ignorance conceals knowledge, and a child's feigned illness might conveniently coincide with a school exam. The word appears most often directly before the noun it modifies, and its most frequent companions are feelings: surprise, interest, indifference, innocence. Though it implies deliberate deception, "feigned" does not necessarily condemn the deceiver; a host may show feigned enthusiasm for a gift, or a friend feigned shock at a surprise party, without any real wrongdoing. The register is somewhat formal and literary, lending precision where words like "fake" would sound blunt. Etymologically it descends from the Latin fingere, "to shape or mould," making it a cousin of "fiction" and "figure": a feigned emotion is quite literally something shaped into existence for the occasion.
adjectiveSimulated or pretended; not genuine but deliberately presented as real, typically to deceive or to mask one's true feelings.
- Pretended or simulated; assumed deliberately rather than genuinely felt, especially of emotions, reactions, or states such as surprise, ignorance, or illness.
"She greeted the news with feigned delight, though privately she was disappointed."
"He affected feigned indifference to the award, though he had campaigned for it quietly for months."
"The suspect's feigned amnesia did not survive the detective's careful questioning."
'Feigned' and 'fiction' are cousins — both trace back to Latin fingere, 'to shape or mould,' so a feigned smile is literally a work of fiction.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of feigned
"Feigned" is the past participle of the verb "feign," which entered English via Old French "feindre" from the Latin "fingere," meaning to shape, mould, or form — hence also, figuratively, to invent or devise. The same Latin verb produced English "fiction," "figure," "figment," and "effigy." In English, "feign" came to mean pretending or simulating something, especially an emotion or condition, and "feigned" settled into use as an attributive adjective describing such pretense.
Related word forms
How feigned is actually used
"Feigned" is largely literary and formal in register, appearing most often before the noun it modifies — as in feigned surprise, feigned innocence, or feigned illness — and frequently signals that someone is masking their true feelings. It carries no strong negative judgment by itself; the deception may be playful, polite, or malicious depending on context.
Easily confused with feigned
A feint is a deceptive movement or sham attack (especially in fencing or sport), while feigned describes anything pretended or simulated; both derive from the same root but 'feint' is a noun/verb of action, not an adjective of pretense.