Meanings
plural false friends
- human sciencesA word in a language that bears a deceptive resemblance to a word in another language but in fact has a different meaning.
A word and its false friend may well be etymologically related: in such cases semantic shifts have made them drift apart.
Synonyms: faux ami, false cousin
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA word in a language that bears a deceptive resemblance to a word in another language but in fact has a different meaning.
Origin
- Frenchfaux-ami
- Englishfalse friend
Calque of French faux-ami, from the longer phrase faux amis du traducteur (“false friends of a translator”), first used by Maxime Kœssler and Jules Derocquigny in 1928 in their book Les Faux Amis ou les trahisons du vocabulaire anglais (False Friends, or the Pitfalls of the English Vocabulary).
More words from French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic شِبْه نَظِير
- شِبْه نَظِير (šibh naẓīr)type of word
Bulgarian фалши́в прия́тел
- фалши́в прия́тел (falšív prijátel)type of word
Catalan fals amic
- fals amictype of word
Chinese Mandarin 偽友 /伪友, 假友
- 偽友 /伪友 (wěiyǒu)type of word
- 假友 (jiǎyǒu)type of word
- 假等義 /假等义 (jiǎděngyì)type of word
- 假朋友 (jiǎpéngyǒu)type of word
- 同形异义词 (tóxíngyìyìcí)type of word
Czech falešný přítel
- falešný příteltype of word
Danish falsk ven
- falsk ventype of word
Dutch valse vriend
- valse vriendtype of word
Esperanto falsa amiko
- falsa amikotype of word
Estonian virvasõna
- virvasõnatype of word
Finnish riskisana
- riskisanatype of word
French faux-ami
- faux-amitype of word
German falscher Freund, Übersetzungsfalle
- falscher Freundtype of word
- Übersetzungsfalletype of word
Greek ψευδόφιλος
- ψευδόφιλος (psevdófilos)type of word
Hindi झूठा दोस्त
- झूठा दोस्त (jhūṭhā dost)type of word
Hungarian hamis barát, álbarát
- hamis baráttype of word
- álbaráttype of word
Icelandic falsvinur, svikatengsl
- falsvinurtype of word
- svikatengsltype of word
Indonesian teman palsu
- teman palsutype of word
Irish cara bréige
- cara bréigetype of word
Italian falso amico
- falso amicotype of word
Japanese 偽りの友, 空似言葉
- 偽りの友 (itsuwari no tomo)type of word
- 空似言葉 (sorani kotoba)type of word
Korean 거짓 친구, 거짓짝
- 거짓 친구 (geojit chin'gu)type of word
- 거짓짝 (geojitjjak)type of word
Latin falsus amicus
- falsus amicustype of word
Latvian viltusdraugs
- viltusdraugstype of word
Lithuanian netikras draugas
- netikras draugastype of word
Norwegian Bokmål falsk venn
- falsk venntype of word
Polish fałszywy przyjaciel, fałszywy przyjaciel tłumacza
- fałszywy przyjacieltype of word
- fałszywy przyjaciel tłumaczatype of word
Portuguese falso amigo, heterossemântico
- falso amigotype of word
- heterossemânticotype of word
Romanian prieten fals
- prieten falstype of word
Russian ло́жный друг
- ло́жный друг (lóžnyj drug)type of word
Slovak falošný priateľ
- falošný priateľtype of word
Spanish falso amigo, heterosemántico
- falso amigotype of word
- heterosemánticotype of word
Swedish falsk vän
- falsk väntype of word
Thai เพื่อนเทียม, เพื่อนเท็จ
- เพื่อนเทียม (pʉ̂ʉan-tiiam)type of word
- เพื่อนเท็จ (pʉ̂ʉan-tét)type of word
Turkish yanlış arkadaşı, sahte arkadaş
- yanlış arkadaşıtype of word
- sahte arkadaştype of word
Ukrainian хи́бний друг, фальши́вий друг
- хи́бний друг (xýbnyj druh)type of word
- фальши́вий друг (falʹšývyj druh)type of word
Urdu جُھوٹا دوسْت
- جُھوٹا دوسْت (jhūṭā dost)type of word
Welsh cyfaill gau, gau-gyfaill
- cyfaill gautype of word
- gau-gyfailltype of word
Cite this entry
false friend. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/false%20friend
“false friend.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/false%20friend. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “false friend,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/false%20friend.
Source: false friend on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.