Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🎣 Online trick ⚠️ Fake online
phishing

phishing

6.7
A message that tries to trick people into giving their personal and bank details online
  • adjective
  • /ˈfɪʃɪŋ/
  • Texting
translation icon : phishing
  • The email contained a phishing link that tried to steal my bank details.

You can see they, they made the mistake of like using a URL shortening service to create those phishing web pages.

Examples

  • And even the worst performing phishing websites, like think about some of the ones you've seen where it's just like obviously not a real website full of typos.

  • You can see they, they made the mistake of like using a URL shortening service to create those phishing web pages.

    Danny Jones

  • I recognized the phishing attempt when I saw the spelling mistakes in the sender's address.

  • She reported the phishing message to the security team before any sensitive information was compromised.

Antonyms

genuine
156 3.2

Truly felt and not fake, for example a smile or apology

Compounds

phishing scam
  • Texting
1 4.8

A fake email or message that tries to trick people into giving personal information like passwords and bank details

How Deceptive

malicious
89 5.8
phishing
  • Texting
6.7
misleading
148 4.4
suspicious
300 2.7

Surface Forms

phishing positive

Morphology

phishing = phish (transparent) = phish + ing

The adjectival use is the regular participial use of verb + -ing (e.g., 'a phishing message'), so the relation to 'phish' is direct.

Etymology

Phishing as an adjective comes from the same image as fishing, meaning fake 'bait' to 'lure' someone. So a 'phishing' email or website is one that is meant to trick you into giving passwords or bank details.