false friend

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false friend

/ˌfɒls ˈfɹɛnd/ UK
/ˌfɔːls ˈfɹɛnd/ UK
/ˌfɔls ˈfɹɛnd/ US
/ˌfɑls ˈfɹɛnd/ Atlantic Canada, US, cot caught merger
/ˌfoːls ˈfɹend/ Australia, New Zealand

Where it comes from

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).

noun false friends

A 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.
Similar: faux ami, false cousin
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see false, friend.

Translations

Every language

noun type of word

Español	falso amigo, heterosemántico
한국어	거짓 친구 geojit chin'gu, 거짓짝 geojitjjak
日本語	偽りの友 itsuwari no tomo, 空似言葉 sorani kotoba
中文	偽友 /伪友 wěiyǒu, 假友 jiǎyǒu, 假等義 /假等义 jiǎděngyì, 假朋友 jiǎpéngyǒu, 同形异义词 tóxíngyìyìcí
हिन्दी	झूठा दोस्त jhūṭhā dost
Português	falso amigo, heterossemântico
Français	faux-ami
Deutsch	falscher Freund, Übersetzungsfalle
Italiano	falso amico
Ελληνικά	ψευδόφιλος psevdófilos
Română	prieten fals
Русский	ло́жный друг lóžnyj drug
العربية	شِبْه نَظِير šibh naẓīr

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Cite this

MLA

"false friend." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/false%20friend. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

false friend. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/false%20friend

Chicago

"false friend." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/false%20friend.

BibTeX

@misc{false_friend_2026,
  title = {false friend},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/false%20friend},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}