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)

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  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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