make-believe vs phony

make-believe

noun
  • The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not. 

  • The action of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are. 

phony

noun
  • A person who assumes an identity or quality other than their own. 

  • A person who professes beliefs or opinions that they do not hold. 

  • Anything fraudulent or fake. 

verb
  • To fake. 

adj
  • Fraudulent; fake; having a misleading appearance. 

How often have the words make-believe and phony occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )