charlatan

He was, Mr. Keefe writes, “a charlatan who had just declared bankruptcy.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

As portrayed in “Death by Lightning,” Guiteau is a rotten-toothed, scheming, big-dreaming, delusional charlatan and possible sociopath.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2025

Passing sentence Judge Geoffery Baker QC described Saeed as a "charlatan", who had carried out a deception that had been "cunningly contrived, skilfully executed, and brazenly maintained over three decades".

From BBC ● Feb. 23, 2025

Elizabeth Holmes’ blood-testing company was able to stay above water through many months of skeptical reporting, but it all eroded quickly once enough people were clear that the founder was a charlatan.

From Slate ● Nov. 8, 2023

I want to think he’s an actor, a charlatan, a fake.

From "Every Day" by David Levithan

Ms. Adelman describes how Lewis’s specimens fell into the hands of a series of botanists—some of them charlatans, drunkards, liars or thieves—who squandered his legacy.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026

That contemporary art might be a dubious realm populated by frauds and charlatans seems quaint today, but once upon a time it was a standard assumption.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2025

Some charlatans are involved in unscrupulous traditional so-called cures, and have been known to sell good luck charms that involve body parts.

From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2025

Over the centuries, it has endorsed only a small percentage of the thousands that have been claimed, in an effort to protect the faithful from charlatans, doctrinal errors or attempts to profit.

From New York Times ● May 17, 2024

“I’ll find a specialist...someone who knows what he’s doing...not like those charlatans in white coats that call themselves doctors.”

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago