What does feign mean?
Word: Feign
Part of Speech: Verb
Meaning: Feign means to act as if you feel, have or are something when you do not, usually to trick someone.
Synonyms: fake, sham, put on
Antonyms: reveal, admit
How do you spell feign?
Syllables: feign
Tricky part: It sounds like fane, but the vowel is spelt ei and there is a silent g before the n, as in reign.
Watch out for: fiegn, feine, fein
Memory tip: Feign and reign rhyme and are spelt the same way after the first letter: f-eign, r-eign. A king can reign; a fox can feign.
Feign in a sentence
Example 1: The tired puppy feigned sleep when it heard the word bath.
Example 2: Emma feigned surprise, though she had known about the party for days.
Example 3: He feigned a cough so that he would not have to sing.
Fun Fact
Feign comes from the Latin fingere, 'to shape' or 'to make up', the same root that gives us fiction and figment, a figment being something made up in the mind.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Choose the correctly spelt word:
a) feign
b) desighn
c) benine
d) sovreign
Show answer
a) feign. Sovereign, design and benign hide a silent g just like feign, but in this list those three are misspelt.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word:
feign
a) prefer
b) refuse
c) pretend
d) forget
Show answer
c) pretend. To feign illness is to pretend to be ill.
Mingle-Mangle
Form a meaningful word from the jumbled letters:
gnief
a) hinge
b) fling
c) fringe
d) feign
Show answer
d) feign. Fling needs an l, hinge an h, and fringe an r; f, e, i, g and n spell only feign.
Word Cookie
Find the misspelt word in the sentence:
Our puppy likes to feign sleep whenever it sees the shampoo bottel.
a) puppy
b) bottel
c) feign
d) shampoo
Show answer
b) bottel. Bottle ends in le, like little and kettle.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which action is an example of feigning?
a) yawning on purpose to look bored
b) crying after a real fall
c) sneezing because of dust
d) laughing at a good joke
Show answer
a) yawning on purpose to look bored
2. If a batsman feigns a run, he ____.
a) pretends to run but stays put
b) takes a quick single to mid-on
c) jogs slowly to the far end
d) runs out his partner by mistake
Show answer
a) pretends to run but stays put
