What does feigning mean?
Feigning is the act of pretending — deliberately giving a false impression of a feeling, condition, or action that one does not genuinely have. Someone feigning illness stays home from work; a poker player feigning indifference hides a winning hand. The word derives from the Latin fingere, meaning 'to shape or mold,' which also gave English 'fiction' and 'figment,' underscoring its deep association with fabrication. Feigning typically requires an object stating what is being counterfeited — surprise, ignorance, sleep, even death — and it carries a connotation of conscious deception, though the motive may range from self-protection and politeness to outright fraud. Common in both everyday speech and literary prose, it is slightly formal in tone, with close cousins such as 'pretending' and 'dissembling' occupying more casual and more damning registers respectively.
Present participle of 'feign': to pretend falsely to have a feeling, condition, or intention.
"She was feigning astonishment at the gift she had already seen."
Almost always followed by a direct object naming what is being faked.
The action or practice of pretending; a false or simulated display.
"His constant feigning of illness eventually fooled no one."
Every time you say 'fiction,' you're echoing the same Latin verb that gave us 'feigning' — both come from fingere, 'to shape,' because a lie is just a story someone has molded into being.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of feigning
Feigning comes from the verb 'feign,' borrowed in the Middle English period from Old French 'feindre' (from Latin 'fingere'), meaning to shape, mold, or fashion — and by extension, to invent or fabricate. The same Latin root produced 'fiction,' 'figment,' 'figure,' and 'effigy,' all carrying the idea of something shaped or formed rather than real. The sense of shaping a false appearance has been central to the word since its earliest use in English.
Related word forms
How feigning is actually used
The word sits in a neutral-to-formal register and often carries an implication of deliberate deception, though it can describe harmless pretense as well. It takes a direct object (what is being faked) far more often than it stands alone, and in literary contexts it frequently appears in constructions like 'feigning sleep' or 'feigning ignorance.'
Easily confused with feigning
'Feigning' means pretending or faking, while 'feinting' means making a deceptive or diverting movement, most often in sports or combat.