Fake

Fake is a term used to describe or imply something which is not real. For example, a document or other object created to look like a real object that exists or could exist, or a performance where an event is played, or untrue statements. Or a person who tries to be someone they're not by dressing and acting differently from their true selves.

Other forms of Fake include dynamic shapes, such as coils of rope. Here the sense is not one of falsity but rather the purposeful dressing up of something to prepare for another use.

Applications include:
*fun, art, use as a toy
**for example, a film or play shows fake events, where actors show fake emotions, and where fake objects are used
*an insult used to describe a person who lies, pretends to be something they are not, does not have an opinion of their own or pretends to like things he or she does not
*deception
**a forgery (a false document or picture)
**a counterfeit (of an object)
**a decoy
*the same purpose (partly or fully) as the real thing
**meat analogue
**imitation fur
**artificial leather
** Something in Dot Hack
**fake gun: can be used to threaten, e.g. in a robbery; for this reason fake guns are often prohibited, unless clearly distinguishable from a real gun

Reasons for using a fake object instead of the real thing include:
*the real thing does not exist, including:
**a document trying to prove something which is not true
**a fantasy object
*a fake version of an object may be:
**more easily available
**less expensive
**less dangerous (e.g. a toy weapon, or a weapon prop)
**less heavy
**not requiring to kill an animal (meat analogue, imitation fur)
**legal while the real thing is illegal
**not requiring a license
*decoys of a military target either require the extra effort to distinguish them from the real thing or make destruction less efficient by the need to destruct the decoys too; decoys are less expensive than the real thing; especially for missiles it is also important that they are less heavy; also they may be inflatable and therefore before deployment have a small volume; in the case of arms limitation agreements an advantage is also that they typically are not limited.

ee also

*dummy
*hoax
*replica
*fiction
*fantasy
*virtual reality
*dream
*novel
*film
*hallucination
*delusion
*illusion
*mimic
*fake object - with "object" in the sense of object-oriented programming, used in computer software development and testing
*unrealistic