pretense

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“
This pretense is all she has to cling to, poor thing, in lieu of saying straight out, 'I can't return to that old adventure now.

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Definitions (12)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun The act of pretending; a false appearance or action intended to deceive.
  2. noun A false or studied show; an affectation: a pretense of nonchalance.
  3. noun A professed but feigned reason or excuse; a pretext: under false pretenses.
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Examples (50)

  • For the kids' sakes, Patsy said, but I sensed the pretense was also being upheld for their own peace of mind. —  Muller, Marcia - [McCone 08] Eye of the Storm UC FR.htm
  • For somewhere not far behind the pretense was the reality. —  Mary Balogh - Beyond the Sunrise
  • Babangida, using several pending lawsuits as a pretense, annulled the election, throwing Nigeria into turmoil.
  • Those five charges include two counts each of fraud and false pretense, and a single count of impersonation. —  The Western Star: Local
  • And after hearing this endless mantra of the bad guys returning to their evil ways, we learn that even that petty pretense is a bald faced lie. —  Canadian Cynic
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

pretence ·  subterfuge ·  affectation ·  pretext ·  semblance ·  deception ·  hypocrisy ·  artifice ·  duplicity ·  ruse ·  mockery ·  pretension
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French pretensse, from Medieval Latin *praetēnsa, from Late Latin, feminine of praetēnsus, alteration of Latin praetentus, past participle of praetendere, to pretend, assert; see pretend.
 

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/prikˈtɛns/
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