作伪 (zuò wěi) — to forge; to counterfeit

Definition

作伪 means to forge or counterfeit (documents, signatures, money). Used in formal/legal contexts; the more common everyday word is 造假.

verb
to forgeto counterfeit
Easily confused

Examples

  • 作伪！。
    Bú yào zuò wěi! zhè shì wéi fǎ de.
    Don't forge anything! It's illegal.
  • ，。
    Tā zuò guò wěi, bèi jǐng chá zhuā le.
    He has forged before and was caught by the police.
  • 作伪。
    Wǒ men bù néng xiāng xìn zhè xiē zuò wěi de zhèng jiàn.
    We cannot trust these forged documents.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
动宾dòngbīnVerb + object

An action followed by what it acts on, fused into one word.

作zuòmake
伪wěifalseness

作 means make and 伪 means falseness, so the word pictures making falseness.

Characters in this word

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
乍
乍zhà作zuò
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The left side 亻 comes from 人, meaning 'person', and the right side 乍 gives the sound.

Open 作 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 偽; 伪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
亻Written in full as人rénman
Sound part声符shēngfú
為
為wéi偽wěi
Same sound today

The modern 伪 comes from the traditional form 偽, where 亻 (man) marks the idea as about a person and 為 gives the sound and means “to make”; together they originally meant “artificial”.

Open 伪 →

Browse more HSK 7-9 words or search the full 43,000-word dictionary.