Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of pretending; a false appearance or action intended to deceive.
- n. A false or studied show; an affectation: a pretense of nonchalance.
- n. A professed but feigned reason or excuse; a pretext: under false pretenses.
- n. Something imagined or pretended.
- n. Mere show without reality; outward appearance.
- n. A right asserted with or without foundation; a claim. See Synonyms at claim.
- n. The quality or state of being pretentious; ostentation.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An intention; a design; a purpose.
- n. The act of pretending, or putting forward something to conceal the true state of affairs, and thus to deceive; hence, the representation of that which does not exist; simulation; feigning; a false or hypocritical show; a sham.
- n. That under cover of which an actual design or meaning is concealed; a pretext.
- n. Pretension; aspiration; the putting forth of a claim, particularly to merit, dignity, or personal worth; pretentiousness.
- n. A claim; a right asserted, with or without foundation.
Wiktionary
- n. US A false or hypocritical profession, as, under pretense of friendliness.
- n. Intention or purpose not real but professed.
- n. An unsupported claim made or implied.
- n. An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of laying claim; the claim laid; assumption; pretension.
- n. The act of holding out, or offering, to others something false or feigned; presentation of what is deceptive or hypocritical; deception by showing what is unreal and concealing what is real; false show; simulation.
- n. That which is pretended; false, deceptive, or hypocritical show, argument, or reason; pretext; feint.
- n. obsolete Intention; design.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a false or unsupportable quality
- n. pretending with intention to deceive
- n. imaginative intellectual play
- n. the act of giving a false appearance
- n. an artful or simulated semblance
Etymologies
- From Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin prætensus, past participle of prætendere ("to pretend"), from præ- ("before") + tendere ("to stretch"); see pretend. (Wiktionary)
- 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. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Another article in the "mainstream" media criticizing President Obama, in which the pretense is about an "open media" and "transparency," but the subtext is obvious – racism, pure and simple.”
“The free enterprise pretense is today, again, providing profit to a small number of people and corporations.”
“What should they have done, one of those fake long sloppy kisses in pretense done by couples that probably haven't touched each other in years?”
“There are people out there who, in pretense of a dark cloud around him are hiding their racist attitudes and I hope you are not one of them.”
“But the biggest pretense is that Georgia is supported by the West.”
“That's the sound of hot air escaping after pretense is punctured by a pointed question.”
“I could think of no better way to communicate than with a poem, where pretense is stripped away, leaving only what is beautiful and vital.”
And I didn’t even get your name… : Patricia Smith : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“The pretense is the result of terror of rejection, just as it is in the Middle Class form, though reasons for possible rejection are worlds apart from the Middle Class conditioning.”
“In many Middle Class homes the pretense is enforced as hard or harder than it is in public, in an effort to "prepare one for the big bad world".”
“Peter Nellhaus on Ho Choi's Sasaeng Gyeoldan (Bloody Tie): "This is like a Quentin Tarantino film without a lot of the pretense from a Korean filmmaker who should be better known stateside.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pretense’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 159 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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perrch
perch, fallow, gale, sparrows, dreary, crust, tramped, glare, plod, trudge, tramp, tumble and 12 more...
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ghost
This is Ghost List 2 ( the kind that go 'boo!' ) :P
( open list )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/macabrephantom, spectral, specter, spectre, spooky, poltergeist, haunt, spirit, banshee, cryptic, shadow, phantasm and 311 more...
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Fubbery and Blaflum
An arcade of artifice and deception.
fubbery, blaflum, Drunken Fist, escamoterie, archdeceiver, legerdemain, prestidigitation, prestidigital, glaik, imposture, fraud, disguise and 78 more...
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English British pronunciation
Differences betwen brithish and American english spelling or pronunciation.
centre, center, fibre, fiber, litre, liter, theatre, theater, colour, color, flavour, flavor and 18 more...
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Filter 1
Hard words level 1
besotted, altricial, consecrate, consternate, desuetude, detractor, dissolute, divisive, emaciated, enamored, ensconce, garishly and 76 more...
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Hiding in plain sight
anticryptic, camouflage, chameleon, xenomorphic, obfusc, stegnographic, stealth, dissemble, dissimulate, mask, masquerade, screen and 27 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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Vocab ##5
appint, monarch, counterpart, muse, bestow, unwitting, aghast, admonish, wage, decree, cavalry, phalanx and 126 more...
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everythingecstatic's Words
cadence, frenetic, eloquence, paradigm, nocturne, elusive, effervescence, soliloquy, plethora, elision, aqueous, transcend and 166 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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Loaded Dice
Off the straight and narrow; less than straight arrow.
chicanery, sophistry, pilfer, rook, diddle, fleece, grift, poach, rustle, pinch, abscond, steal and 140 more...
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Mimi
sober, rhetoric, oratory, ergo, venom, diaphragm, Medieval, piety, incognito, ruse, calamity, evidence and 251 more...
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SAT PSAT ALPHABETICAL P
pacifistic, pacify, palatable, palaver, palliate, pallid, palpable, pamper, panacea, pandemic, pandemonium, panegyric and 209 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pretense.
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