Meaning

noun a fraudulent or duplicitous representation

noun the quality of being fraudulent

noun something intended to deceive; deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage

originFrom Old French fraudulence, from Latin fraudulentia (“deceitfulness, disposition to defraud; fraudulence”), from fraudulentus (“deceitful, fraudulent”) + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns). Fraudulentus is derived from fraus (“deceit, fraud”) (from Proto-Indo-European *dʰrew- (“to mislead”)) + -ulentus (“abounding in, full of”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0