This week’s theme
Words entering English in the last 30 years

This week’s words
dogfood
dot-connect
crowdfund
neurodivergence
deepfake


This week’s comments
AWADmail 1133

Next week’s theme
Words made with letters that double as musical notes

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(DEEP-fayk)

MEANING:

noun: Digitally manipulated images, video, or audio that make someone appear to do or say something they did not.

ETYMOLOGY:

A combination of deep learning + fake. Coined by a user of the Reddit website. Earliest documented use: 2017.

NOTES:

The advent of cheap photo manipulation software has given anyone with a few minutes on their hands the ability to alter a picture. If you think this is bad, wait for deepfake technology with which one can manipulate a video to make a person say or do what one wants them to.

Should we be alarmed by deepfakery? Not any more than we are alarmed by Photoshop. Ultimately, it’s the credibility of the source that matters. If it’s The Washington Post or The New York Times, you can be assured that real journalists did their due diligence before publishing something. If it’s some television channel spewing faux news, chances are it’s propaganda.

USAGE:

“Platforms say they are better at weeding out fakes. Taylor Swift, the latest high-profile victim of a deepfake, might disagree.”
The End of the Social Network; The Economist (London, UK); Feb 3, 2024.

See more usage examples of deepfake in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: