Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An act intended to deceive or trick.
  • noun Something that has been established or accepted by fraudulent means.
  • transitive verb To deceive or cheat by using a hoax.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A humorous or mischievous deception; a practical joke; usually, a marvelous or exciting fabrication or fiction gravely related as a test of credulity.
  • noun One who misleads or deceives; a hoaxer; a humbug.
  • To deceive by an amusing or mischievous fabrication or fiction; play upon the credulity of.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A deception for mockery or mischief; a deceptive trick or story; a practical joke.
  • transitive verb To deceive by a story or a trick, for sport or mischief; to impose upon sportively.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To deceive (someone) by making them believe something which has been maliciously or mischievously fabricated.
  • noun Anything deliberately intended to deceive or trick.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage
  • verb subject to a playful hoax or joke

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Perhaps alteration of hocus.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

This definition is lacking an etymology or has an incomplete etymology. You can help Wiktionary by giving it a proper etymology.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word hoax.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Contraction of hocus-pocus.

    November 26, 2007