GENUINE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does genuine mean? 

• GENUINE (adjective)
  The adjective GENUINE has 3 senses:

1. not fake or counterfeit

2. not pretended; sincerely felt or expressed

3. being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something

  Familiarity information: GENUINE used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GENUINE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not fake or counterfeit

Synonyms:

echt; genuine

Context example:

genuine leather

Similar:

authentic; bona fide; unquestionable; veritable (not counterfeit or copied)

attested; authenticated; documented (established as genuine)

good; honest (not forged)

honest-to-god; honest-to-goodness; sure-enough ((used informally especially for emphasis) real or genuine)

Also:

honest; honorable (not disposed to cheat or defraud; not deceptive or fraudulent)

existent; real (being or occurring in fact or actuality; having verified existence; not illusory)

sincere (open and genuine; not deceitful)

true (consistent with fact or reality; not false)

Antonym:

counterfeit (not genuine; imitating something superior)

Derivation:

genuineness (undisputed credibility)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not pretended; sincerely felt or expressed

Synonyms:

genuine; true; unfeigned

Context example:

true grief

Similar:

sincere (open and genuine; not deceitful)

Derivation:

genuineness (undisputed credibility)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Being or reflecting the essential or genuine character of something

Synonyms:

actual; genuine; literal; real

Context example:

a genuine dilemma

Similar:

true (consistent with fact or reality; not false)

Derivation:

genuineness (the state of being genuine)

 Context examples 

Love, genuine passionate love, was his for the first time.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

My note to you was absolutely genuine.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The stage could no longer excite genuine merriment—no longer keep her whole attention.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It was written with a plain, unaffected, homely piety that I knew to be genuine, and ended with “my duty to my ever darling”—meaning myself.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That—if a genuine document—may prove I have been married, but it does not prove that the woman mentioned therein as my wife is still living.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There was color, light, and life in the boy's face now, vivacity in his manner, and genuine merriment in his laugh.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Fanny's feelings on the occasion were indeed considerably more warm and genuine than her aunt's style of writing.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

The mood, whatever it was, was genuine.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

As Harriet described it, there had been an interesting mixture of wounded affection and genuine delicacy in their behaviour.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Yet I persuaded myself that it must have been some nervous contraction which I had surprised, for he turned to me an instant later with genuine concern upon his features.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)