false cognate

Noun

• A word which is identical or similar in both form and meaning to another word, and therefore appears to also be cognate (etymologically related) to it, but which is in fact unrelated.
• A word that appears identical or similar in form to another word, but is both unrelated in its meaning and of unrelated origin.
• A false friend, a word that appears to have the same meaning as a given word, but that does not (without regard to whether or not the two terms are cognate).