How to spell feign

hear itfeign/feɪn/verbSilent and tricky

What it means: To pretend to feel or be something.

In a sentence: The clever fox tried to feign sleep to trick the hunter.

The part people get wrong

Watch for the order of ei. Often misspelled as fain or feignn.

Same family: feigned, feigning, pretend, simulate, fake. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Feign” comes from Old French *feindre*, meaning “to pretend or shirk,” which itself goes back to Latin *fingere*, “to shape or form.” That same Latin root also gave us “fiction,” “figure,” and “effigy,” all related to things that are shaped or made up.

Patterns it uses: i before e?

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

ankle · eighth · bank · lincoln · reign

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.