phony vs pseudo

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. 

pseudo

noun
  • An intellectually pretentious person; a pseudointellectual. 

  • pseudo-city code 

  • A poseur; one who is fake. 

  • A pseudonym; a false name used for online anonymity. 

adj
  • Other than what is apparent; spurious; sham. 

  • Insincere. 

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