Learn ArabicB2 › زائِف

زائِف

fake, counterfeit, false /ˈzaː.ʔif/

adjectiveB2#3506 most common

Also: forged, bogus, spurious

Example sentences

هذا خبر زائف.
This is fake news.
اشترى ساعة زائفة من السوق.
He bought a fake watch from the market.
انتشرت أخبار زائفة عن الحادث على مواقع التواصل.
Fake news about the accident spread on social media.
حاول الرجل دفع فاتورته بأوراق نقدية زائفة.
The man tried to pay his bill with counterfeit banknotes.
يروج بعض التجار سلعًا زائفة تحمل أسماء علامات تجارية مشهورة.
Some merchants push counterfeit goods bearing the names of famous brands.
تتعرض الديمقراطيات الحديثة لتهديد متزايد بسبب الدعاية الزائفة التي تبثها حسابات وهمية.
Modern democracies face a growing threat from false propaganda spread by fake accounts.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativeزائفٌزائفون
Genitiveزائفٍزائفين
Accusativeزائفًازائفين
Vocativeزائفزائفون

Word family

زَيَّفَto counterfeit, to falsify
تزييفcounterfeiting, forgery
زَيْفfalseness, sham
مُزَيَّفforged, faked (passive sense)

Etymology

زائف comes from the Arabic root ز-ي-ف, tied to the verb زاف, which in classical usage described a coin that failed to ring true or a person who walked with an affected strut. From this the sense of something that only imitates the real thing developed. The related verb زيّف came to mean specifically to counterfeit money or falsify a claim. زائف is the active participle of the root, so it names the thing doing the deceiving: that which passes itself off as genuine.

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