pretense
pronunciation
How to pronounce pretense in British English:
UK [prɪ'tens]
How to pronounce pretense in American English:
US [ˈpriˌtɛns, prɪˈtɛns]
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- Noun:
- the act of giving a false appearance
- pretending with intention to deceive
- imaginative intellectual play
- a false or unsupportable quality
- an artful or simulated semblance
Word Origin
- pretense (n.)
- also pretence, early 15c., "the putting forth of a claim," from Anglo-French pretensse, Middle French pretensse (Modern French prétense), from Medieval Latin noun use of fem. of Late Latin praetensus, altered from Latin praetentus, past participle of praetendere (see pretend). Meaning "false or hypocritical profession" is from 1540s.
Synonym
pomposity gas fanfaronade hot braggadocio boasting pompousness side pretentiousness bragging air peacockery vaunting gasconade
Example
- 1. But when lawyers measure themselves against the highest-paid ceos or the richest americans , it 's a pretense . "
- 2. It 's not a good pretense .
- 3. Sir , look at this pretense of want of room .
- 4. Jealousy , that dragon which slays love under the pretense of keeping it alive .
- 5. One possibility is that he wants to use a temporary crisis as a pretense for engineering a permanent increase in the size and scope of the government .