These words refer to imitations or substitutes that are poorly or unconvincingly executed. Sham specifically suggests the hypocritical acting out of roles or the display of pretended virtues so as to result in a deliberate or unconscious travesty of the real thing: sham piety that was shown up by their actual behaviour; a sham though legally certified marriage entered into for financial gain. Mock is close to sham in suggesting an outrageously bad or hypocritical pretence to virtue, especially when done with overblown grandiosity: windy oratory full of mock patriotism. The word, however, has a growing use as a neutral term describe something intended to deceive no one but having a usefulness of its own: mock turtle soup; a mock battle as part of National-Service training.

Fake suggests a copy or substitute which may but need not be intended to deceive: fake loyalty that won his boss’s admiration; buying a fake fur to wear as a second coat in place of her real mink. Bogus stresses the inherent worthlessness of the copy or imitation: bogus sentiment; bogus currency. Phony , aside from its simple pejorative use for a deliberate deception, stresses conscious hypocrisy that is never self-deceiving: a phony scholar who freely made up both his quotations and his sources. Phony is the most informal word of this group and perhaps most pejorative in its assault of priggishness and especially pretentiousness: a phony show-off.