What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Fake vs Ersatz - What's the difference?

fake | ersatz |

As adjectives the difference between fake and ersatz

is that fake is not real; false, fraudulent while ersatz is made in imitation; artificial, especially of an inferior quality.

As nouns the difference between fake and ersatz

is that fake is something which is not genuine, or is presented fraudulently or fake can be (nautical) one of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies in a coil; a single turn or coil while ersatz is something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.

As a verb fake

is to cheat; to swindle; to steal; to rob or fake can be (nautical) to coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or figure of eight form, to prevent twisting when running out.

fake

English

Etymology 1

(wikipedia fake) The origin is not known with certainty, although first attested in 1775

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Not real; false, fraudulent.
  • Which fur coat looks fake ?
    Synonyms
    * See also
    Antonyms
    * genuine

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Something which is not genuine, or is presented fraudulently.
  • A trick; a swindle.
  • (soccer) Move meant to deceive an opposing player, used for gaining advantage when dribbling an opponent.
  • Synonyms
    * (soccer move) feint, (ice hokey move) deke

    Verb

    (fak)
  • To cheat; to swindle; to steal; to rob.
  • To make; to construct; to do. (rfexample)
  • To modify fraudulently, so as to make an object appear better or other than it really is; as, to fake a bulldog, by burning his upper lip and thus artificially shortening it.
  • To make a counterfeit, to counterfeit, to forge, to falsify.
  • To make a false display of, to affect, to feign, to simulate.
  • Synonyms
    * (To modify fraudulently) adulterate * (To make a false display) pass off, pose
    Derived terms
    * fake out * faker

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) (m), to coil a rope .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (nautical) One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies in a coil; a single turn or coil.
  • Verb

    (fak)
  • (nautical) To coil (a rope, line, or hawser), by winding alternately in opposite directions, in layers usually of zigzag or figure of eight form, to prevent twisting when running out.
  • ersatz

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Made in imitation; artificial, especially of an inferior quality.
  • Back then, we could only get ersatz coffee.

    Synonyms

    * artificial, faux, imitation, knock off

    Quotations

    * 1923 , Arthur Michael Samuel, The Mancroft Essays'', ''Pinchbeck'', page 164 (possibly published before in ''The Saturday Review in 1917–1921): *: In these days of “rolled” gold, electro-plate, and undetectable pearls, it is curious that almost the only honest Ersatz material known to the goldsmith's art should be utterly forgotten. * 1929 , "Zeppelining," Time , 16 Sep., *: Ersatzgas'', ''Ersatzpfennige . Ersatz has become a brave word in Germany. As a substantive it means War Reparations. As part of compounded words it means substitute. * 2001 , The New Yorker , 15 Oct, *: The avant-garde's opposite number, in Greenberg's scheme, is kitsch, "ersatz culture"—art for capitalism's new man (who turns out to be no different from Fascism's or Communism's new man). * 2003 , The New Yorker , 17 & 24 Feb, *: The NATO visitors watched an ersatz eighteenth-century dance (complete with powdered wigs and simulated copulation) that might have been considered obscene had it not been so amusing. * 2004 , The New Yorker , 31 May, *: The crowd wandered out to a huge party on the ersatz city blocks of the Paramount lot.

    Noun

    (ersatzes)
  • Something made in imitation; an effigy or substitute.
  • (en)

    Synonyms

    * imitation, knock off