pretense.
The action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.
Meaning & usage
The action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.
He visited the king under the pretense of friendliness.
"Lady Little", the title that she used, was just a pretense.
Affectation or ostentation of manner.
She was a plain-speaking woman without a hint of pretense.
Intention or purpose not real but professed.
with only a pretense of accuracy
An unsupported claim made or implied.
An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.
Intention; design.
Where this word comes from
Borrowed from Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin praetēnsus, past participle of Latin praetendō (“to pretend”), from prae- (“before”) + tendō (“to stretch”); see pretend.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.