phony

When Johnson called to follow up, Monk, by now feeling distrustful of everyone, suspected he was another phony and demanded to see a badge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026

Major job-search platforms say they are focused on what’s phony and sowing mistrust.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 5, 2026

Legal analysts say the motive of Median Strategies in putting out the phony poll would be a decisive factor in determining whether any laws were broken.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026

While Heller was built on phony history, it reflected a genuine, hard-fought shift in public understanding.

From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026

“You are so ... I don’t know. Other guys would be all braggy about it. You’re just so real. So down-to-earth. I feel like a big phony whenever I talk to you.”

From "Small Steps" by Louis Sachar

Soft know-it-alls from the city and phonies of any stripe receive rough treatment in his shows, such as the llama farmer from California who gets thrown under a Montana cattle guard in “Yellowstone.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 31, 2025

It’s a satire on the book world and Hollywood adaptations as well as wry drama about a Black college professor and author fuming about phonies and the commodification of Black narratives.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 17, 2023

Mr. Musk trashed Mr. Zuckerberg’s Instagram as a dwelling for fakers and phonies in a Wednesday evening post to Twitter.

From Washington Times ● Jul. 6, 2023

CNN later debunked his claims, noting that “the ‘CNN Ukraine’ and ‘CNN Afghanistan’ accounts behind the tweets are both phonies that have been suspended by Twitter for violating its policy against impersonation.”

From New York Times ● Jun. 7, 2022

Then I watched the phonies for a while.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

Angelenos can spot a phony from far away — and Spencer, you’re turning out to be phonier than the fake drama on any of the television shows you ever appeared in.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

Arthur Julian, a writer on “F Troop,” noted that “real audiences sound phonier than the laugh track. Sometimes they freeze up and act unnatural.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 22, 2026

But the screenplay, by David Benioff, Billy Ray, and Darren Lemke, can’t stand that level of scrutiny, and the closer we get to the actors mouthing their clunky, mock-allegorical dialogue, the phonier they seem.

From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2019

Is an imitation Kardashian any phonier than the real?

From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2011

The phonier it got, the more she cried.

From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

In my experience, the phoniest actors are masters of sincerity.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2021

When it came to decorating his own new home, he threw out all the rules of good taste and embraced the phoniest of fakes.

From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2014

What would be the phoniest thing of all would be for me to all of the sudden not be his friend.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 26, 2011

NEWPORT, Wales -- So it was, inevitably and predictably, the phoniest of conflicts.

From Golf Digest ● Sep. 30, 2010

“That was the phoniest thing I’ve ever heard.”

From "Glitch" by Laura Martin

Every time I go anywhere now it's all phonied up.

From Time Magazine Archive

She was indicted for inducing her client, convicted Kidnaper John William Irwin, to testify falsely in an effort to prove that Sinatra phonied up the kidnaping as a publicity stunt.

From Time Magazine Archive