What does forgery mean?
Forgery is the act of creating or altering something — a document, a signature, a banknote, or a work of art — with the deliberate intention of passing it off as genuine in order to deceive. It is both a serious criminal offence and, in the art world, a source of celebrated scandals: history's great forgers have produced works convincing enough to fool experts, museums, and auction houses. The word applies in two main ways: as a process ('he was convicted of forgery') and as a thing ('the painting proved to be a forgery'). Its connotations are strongly negative, implying dishonesty and a violation of trust. The term is equally at home in courtrooms, news reports about counterfeit currency, and scholarly discussions of disputed artworks, making it a useful word for describing fraud across contexts.
The crime or act of fraudulently producing or altering a document, signature, artwork, or other object so as to pass it off as genuine.
"The clerk was dismissed after being caught in an elaborate forgery of company invoices."
In criminal law, forgery usually concerns documents, signatures, or financial instruments; in art and antiquities contexts, the same word covers fraudulent imitations of objects.
A counterfeit item produced by such fraudulent means.
"The auction house withdrew the lot once tests revealed it was a forgery."
Regular plural; commonly used when referring to multiple counterfeit items or multiple instances of the offence.
"The archive contained several forgeries planted to inflate the collection's value."
Some forgeries are so masterful that experts have needed X-ray fluorescence and carbon dating to unmask them — and a few still hang on gallery walls, undiscovered.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of forgery
Forgery derives from the noun 'forge', which in this context comes from Latin 'fabrica' via Old French 'forge' — originally referring to a smithy, but extended in meaning to include the counterfeiting of documents and money. The word 'forgery' took shape in English during the medieval and early modern period, when falsifying seals, coins, and written instruments became a defined offence. It thus shares its root with 'forge' and 'forged', and more distantly with words derived from Latin 'fabrica', such as 'fabricate'.
How forgery is actually used
Forgery carries strong negative connotations, being both a serious criminal offence and a term of condemnation in the art world. In legal contexts it typically refers specifically to falsifying documents or signatures, while in everyday use it extends readily to faked artworks and artefacts.
Easily confused with forgery
Forging refers to shaping metal by heating and hammering (or the verb form of creating a fake), while forgery is the noun denoting the fraudulent imitation itself.