fraud
//ˈfɹɔːd//
Forms
- Plural
- frauds
Definitions
1.The crime of stealing or otherwise illegally obtaining money by use of deception tactics.
2.Any act of deception carried out for the purpose of unfair, undeserved or unlawful gain.
- When success a lover's toil attends, / Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.
- But electric vehicles and the batteries that made them run became ensnared in corporate scandals, fraud, and monopolistic corruption that shook the confidence of the nation and inspired automotive upstarts.
3.The assumption of a false identity to such deceptive end.
4.A person who performs any such trick.
Frequency
Overall
Uncommon· #3035
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Rare
- General reading & writing
- Uncommon
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English fraude (recorded since 1345)
From Old French fraude, a borrowing from Latin fraus (“deceit, injury, offence”).