DictionaryAI

fugazi

Sayfoo-GAH-zeeUS/fuˈɡɑzi/UK/fuˈɡɑːzi/

Noun pluralfugazis

3 meanings of fugazi

Practice

  1. 1
    fakeadjectiveslangUS
    Fake; not genuine.

    Half the designer bags at that flea market are fugazi.

    Detectives traced the fugazi twenties back to a print shop in Queens.

    Similarfake, counterfeit, phony, bogus

    Oppositegenuine, real, authentic

    Note

    The spelling wobbles between fugazi and fugazy, and so does the story: the word is said to come from Mafia talk, perhaps from Fugazy, the name of a New York limousine company, but nobody is sure.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Fugazy is an alternative spelling of fugazi. en.wiktionary.org
    • The origin is uncertain; a proposed Mafia origin connects it with New York's Fugazy limousine company. en.wiktionary.org
  2. 2
    a fakenounslangUScountable
    A thing that is fake, or less commonly a person who is a fake or a fraud.

    The dealer swore the painting was genuine, but the appraiser called it a fugazi.

    Most of the "vintage" jerseys in that shop are fugazis.

    Similarfake, forgery, knockoff, phony

    Note

    The noun is at home wherever valuables get copied: a diamond, a street-corner Rolex, even the replica shield a retired police officer keeps after handing in the real one. In the film Donnie Brasco, Al Pacino's Lefty bristles when a diamond is dismissed at a glance: "That's a fugazi? How do you know it's a fugazi?"

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

    • Retired police officers acquire replica shields called fugazys after surrendering their official shields. en.wiktionary.org
    • Al Pacino plays Lefty in Donnie Brasco. levinson.com
    • Lefty challenges the immediate identification of a diamond as fake with the quoted words. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    messed upadjectiveslangUS
    Completely messed up; broken or damaged beyond repair.

    By the third day of rain the whole operation was fugazi, and nobody could raise headquarters.

    The truck took a round through the engine block and was totally fugazi.

    Similarbroken, busted, FUBAR, banjaxed

    Note

    This is soldiers' slang, heard especially in the Vietnam War years, and it sits close to FUBAR in meaning and bluntness: a dead radio and a mission gone wrong are both fugazi. Its origin is unknown; one guess is French fougasse, a kind of land mine. A character in Marc Olden's Giri translates it on the spot: "All fugazi over here. All fucked up." The "fake" meaning has a separate story.

    Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of fugazi apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origins

Meaning 3

Of unknown origin. One theory takes it from French fougasse, a type of land mine used widely in the Korean and Vietnam Wars; less plausibly, it may come from English fugacious or Italian fugace, "fleeting". The acronym "fucked up, got ambushed, zipped in" (zipped into a body bag) is more likely a backronym than the origin.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

Meanings 1–2

No one is certain of its origin. The usual story makes it Mafia slang drawn from New York's Fugazy Continental limousine company, owned by William Fugazy, either for its cheesy ads in the 1970s and 1980s or because of its alleged poor business practices, and Sicilian fu cazzu ("it was nothing") may have played a part. The film Donnie Brasco (1997) made it widely known.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 7 facts