forgery

Recorded since 1574; from the verb to forge, from Middle English forgen, via Anglo-Norman forger, from Old French forgier, from Latin fabricari (“to frame, construct, fabricate”), itself from fabrica (“workshop; construction”), from faber (“workman, smith”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔː.dʒəɹ.ɪ/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈfɔːɹ.d͡ʒəɹ.ɪ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

forgery (countable and uncountable, plural forgeries)

1. The act of forging metal into shape.

   the forgery of horseshoes

2. The act of forging, fabricating, or producing falsely; especially the crime of fraudulently making or altering a writing or signature purporting to be made by another, the false making or material alteration of or addition to a written instrument for the purpose of deceit and fraud.

   the forgery of a bond

   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.

3. That which is forged, fabricated, falsely devised or counterfeited.
4. (archaic) An invention, creation.

The non-fraudulent meaning "metalworking" is more usually expressed with the noun forging, or with other words such as metalworking, smithcraft, etc.

• counterfeit
• fake