mountweazel

American

[mount-wee-zuhl] / ˈmaʊntˌwi zəl /

noun

a decoy entry in a reference work, such as a dictionary or encyclopedia, secretly planted among the genuine entries to catch other publishers in the act of copying content.

Etymology

Origin of mountweazel

First recorded in 1975–80; from a fictitious entry in the fourth edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia, Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, who supposedly died on assignment while covering an explosion for the fictitious Combustibles magazine

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023