How to Use phony in a Sentence

phony

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of phonynext
Synonyms for phonynext
  • Looking at the world through a frame, the screen, is phony.
    — Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2022
  • The phony headstone had the names of my mother and father on it.
    — Brayden Garcia, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 2 Feb. 2024
  • The clerk believed the woman may have used phony money to pay for goods.
    — cleveland, 27 Sep. 2022
  • What's best, of course, is to avoid those fake texts and phony calls completely.
    — Susan Tompor, USA TODAY, 24 Aug. 2022
  • The remaining words were: whoop, phony, chomp, ghoul, chock, and whomp.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 6 May 2023
  • Mother of mercy, can this be the end of phony election claims?
    — Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 20 Aug. 2023
  • That’s why phony calls threatening jail time from the IRS work so well.
    — Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 2 Mar. 2022
  • And this time, of course, he’s put people in place who will back up his phony claims of winning the election.
    — Ethan Shanfeld, Variety, 21 Sep. 2022
  • History tells us that a phony nose is as good a way as any to catch the attention of the electorate.
    — Jody Rosen, The New Yorker, 7 Oct. 2023
  • The morning after the fire, Morgan was arrested once again, this time on a phony charge of a $2 debt.
    — Colin Dickey, Smithsonian Magazine, 11 July 2023
  • The problem over phony reviews is not new for Amazon, or e-commerce as a whole.
    — Haleluya Hadero, Chicago Tribune, 19 July 2022
  • So believes Claudine Gay, a race hire, mediocrity, and phony who plays the victim.
    — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 11 Jan. 2024
  • But true talls tend to be wary of phony talls — women in stilettos, for example.
    — Scott Cacciola, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2023
  • The indictment contends the tweets about phony voter fraud and even the lawsuit were part of a similar scheme.
    — Nicholas Riccardi and Meg Kinnard, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Aug. 2023
  • In 2020, Still served as one of Trump’s phony electors after the then-president lost in Georgia.
    — Sarah D. Wire, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2023
  • Wisconsin was one of the seven states for which a list of phony Trump electors was sent to the National Archives.
    — Daniel Dale, CNN, 27 Jan. 2022
  • Good to know there is safer phony stuff that multi-billion-dollar teams aren’t using.
    — Nick Canepa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Dec. 2023
  • The site featured phony images of fellow Twitch streamers.
    — CBS News, 17 Apr. 2023
  • Raise a mock margarita or a phony Negroni — Dry January is once again in full swing.
    — Dani Blum, New York Times, 8 Jan. 2024
  • This is dumber than the phony tournament banner the Lakers just raised at Crypto.com Arena.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Doing the right thing was Marsha’s credo, and there was never anything phony or self-serving about it.
    — Alan K. Rode, Variety, 10 Sep. 2022
  • There was never a circus of fake, phony, lame, press conferences.
    — Rachel Schilke, Washington Examiner, 10 Jan. 2024
  • The documents with that phony assertion were sent to Congress.
    — Richard Ruelas, The Arizona Republic, 9 Oct. 2022
  • Part of why Trump could sow such doubt about election integrity during the 2020 election was the sheer audacity of his phony claims.
    — Arkansas Online, 18 Nov. 2022
  • And now, a teenager from Lancaster has been arrested on suspicion of phoning in the phony threat.
    — Karen Garcia, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2024
  • Others posted different views, saying the graffiti was a hoax and the TikTok threats were phony too.
    — Don Stacom, courant.com, 17 Dec. 2021
  • When phony politicians try to be relatable, stupid things happen.
    — Jenny Goldsberry, Washington Examiner, 29 Oct. 2023
  • Herbert Anderson, whose 2004 case was thrown out Friday, told reporters that Watts and his team planted drugs in his apartment, then pinned a phony case on him.
    — Megan Crepeau, Chicago Tribune, 22 Apr. 2022
  • Some phony social media accounts pose as critics of the government to promote false news.
    — Elahe Izadi, Washington Post, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Without being phony about it, each man took some blame for the Bengals not seizing a game that was, upon further review, very winnable. Start with Taylor.
    — Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Feb. 2022
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phony

2 of 2 noun
  • According to him, politics is full of phonies.
  • I don't think she ever meant to help us. What a phony!
  • The Catcher in the Rye is Holden Caulfield’s hate of phonies.
    — Tatum Dooley, Teen Vogue, 27 June 2019
  • In a world of phonies, Kim Mulkey is anything but fake.
    — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Steuben, though in so many ways a fraud, was not a phony.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 18 July 2021
  • Putting on airs or a false front will come off as phony, so be yourself to get the best results.
    — oregonlive, 17 Apr. 2020
  • But the screen Larry saw for a bank statement was likely a phony.
    — Dallas News, 21 June 2021
  • In the holding cell, the phony inmates prompted Martinez to talk.
    — Teri Figueroa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Sep. 2019
  • According to our friend Holden, a phony is a sell-out (one can imagine that Kurt Cobain was a fan of the book).
    — Tatum Dooley, Teen Vogue, 27 June 2019
  • Justice’ contact me to tell me of the phony Russia problem?
    — Peter Baker, New York Times, 26 May 2018
  • But the slippers reported to have been in the collector's mansion were phonies, and divers found nothing at the...
    — Kristine Phillips, The Seattle Times, 4 Sep. 2018
  • Sounds like a total phony that's only in it for the money anymore.
    — Chris Malone, Billboard, 24 Oct. 2017
  • Leland, meanwhile, fancies himself a kind of Holden Caulfield type, too smart for this life, able to see the phonies in a world of hypocrisy.
    — New York Times, 21 June 2018
  • Trump on the campaign trail called the unemployment rate phony, so these claims are flip-flops.
    — Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post, 10 July 2018
  • Romney had been one of Trump’s most strident critics in the 2016 election, calling him a phony and a fraud.
    — Washington Post, 11 June 2017
  • The victim deposits the check, wires the money and the money is long gone before the victim is told the initial check was a phony and did not clear.
    — Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 9 Mar. 2018
  • The resident was suspicious, confirmed the check was a phony and did not deposit the check.
    — Kimberly Fornek, chicagotribune.com, 2 Nov. 2020
  • SEALs can find a phony with only a few questions, so thieves beware.
    — Ed Hiner, sandiegouniontribune.com, 15 May 2017
  • Ever attuned to potential scams from phonies and loons alike, our man had seen through it all.
    — Luke O'Neil, Esquire, 5 Jan. 2018
  • But the modern mixology craze leaves little room for phonies.
    — Nancy Luna, Orange County Register, 14 June 2017
  • Meghan Markle is a little phony for that fake British accent coming through.
    — Kathleen Joyce, Fox News, 2 Oct. 2018
  • In trying to weed out a phony, reviewers can consider the slant of the writing and how letters are shaped and spaced.
    — Michael R. Blood and Kathleen Ronayne, USA TODAY, 16 Mar. 2021
  • Stretch spouted off numbers about the percentage of ads purchased by the Russian trolls, the reach of those ads, and the total posts these phony accounts shared.
    — Issie Lapowsky, WIRED, 5 Apr. 2018
  • Kelly Master knows that women who dance naked for a living can see through phonies instantly.
    — Kevin Riordan, Philly.com, 6 Apr. 2018
  • Republicans like Carney, sizing up the trend, say Hegar is a phony.
    — Tom Benning, Dallas News, 28 Oct. 2020
  • Feeling like a phony is not uncommon and doesn’t signify that something is wrong with you.
    — Hanna Hart, Forbes, 24 Feb. 2021
  • In the phony-baloney name of their version of safety, the NFL installed a targeting rule without calling it a targeting rule.
    — Steve Rosenbloom, chicagotribune.com, 30 Mar. 2018
  • And your stage persona is usually making fun of a show-business-phony-type person.
    — Jesse David Fox, Vulture, 16 Sep. 2021
  • But Nez felt like a phony even though the producers placated him by including a couple of his songs on the early albums.
    — Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 9 Jan. 2022
  • The extension will produce a phony, four-way conference call comprised of three imposter colleagues and your show/movie of choice.
    — Clarkisha Kent, EW.com, 9 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phony.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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