Editing Hoax (section)

{{Short description|Widespread deliberate fabrication presented as truth}}
{{other uses}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
[[File:Dreadnought hoax larger photo (cropped).png|upright=1.3|thumb|The [[Dreadnought hoax|''Dreadnought'' hoax]]ers in [[Ethiopian Empire|Abyssinian]] [[regalia]]; the bearded figure on the far left is the writer [[Virginia Woolf]].]]

A '''hoax''' (plural: '''hoaxes''') is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible.

Some '''hoaxers''' intend to eventually unmask their representations as having been a hoax so as to expose their victims as fools; seeking some form of profit, other hoaxers hope to maintain the hoax indefinitely, so that it is only when skeptical people willing to investigate their claims publish their findings, that the hoaxers are finally revealed as such.