Pseudo- is a prefix that means fake, false, or pretending to be something it's not. When you attach it to the front of a word, you're saying something appears to be real but isn't genuine.

A pseudonym is a fake name writers or artists use instead of their real one. Samuel Clemens wrote books under the pseudonym Mark Twain. Your favorite author might use a pseudonym to protect their privacy or to write in a different genre without confusing readers.

Pseudoscience looks like real science on the surface, with charts and technical-sounding words, but it doesn't follow the scientific method. Real science involves careful experiments, peer review, and changing theories when evidence proves them wrong. Pseudoscience skips these steps and makes claims that can't be tested.

You might hear about pseudo-intellectuals, people who use big words and act smart but don't actually understand what they're talking about. Or pseudocode, which programmers use to sketch out ideas in a way that looks like computer code but isn't an actual programming language.

When you see pseudo- at the start of a word, it's a signal to look closer and ask whether something is authentic or just imitating the real thing.