Noun

1. A word that appears to be cognate to – that is, to have a shared linguistic origin with – a given word, but that is in fact unrelated.
2. A false friend, a word that appears to have the same meaning as a given word, but that does not.

Usage notes

• Some speakers consider the usage of to mean to be incorrect.
• Examples of false cognates:
  • Many completely unrelated languages use some variant of ma for "mother".
  • English (and the related German verb ) and Latin are thought to be false cognates — have is more likely cognate to .
  • French and English are indeed cognates (they have a shared root), but they are false friends (they have different meanings), thus, they are only false cognates in the second sense.