pretense

English

Alternative forms

• pretence (British)
• prætense (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin praetēnsus, past participle of Latin praetendō (“to pretend”), from prae- (“before”) + tendō (“to stretch”); see pretend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɹiːtɛns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pre‧tense

Noun

pretense (countable and uncountable, plural pretenses) (American spelling)

1. (US) A false or hypocritical assertion, implication, or representation.

   under pretense of friendliness

2. Intention or purpose not real but professed.

   with only a pretense of accuracy

3. An unsupported claim made or implied.
4. An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.

Synonyms

• affectation denotes deception for the sake of escape from punishment or an awkward situation
• false pretense
• fiction
• imitation
• pretext
• sham
• subterfuge

• See also Thesaurus:pretext

Related terms

• pretend
• pretender
• pretension
• pretentiosity
• pretentious
• pretentiousness

 

Translations

false or hypocritical profession

• Arabic: ذريعة
• Czech: předstírání (cs) n
• German: Vortäuschung (de) f, Vorspiegelung (de) f, Vortäuschen n, Anschein (de) m, Heucheln n
• Greek:

  Ancient: πρόφασις f (próphasis), σκῆψις f (skêpsis)

• Irish: cur i gcéill m
• Latin: praetextum n
• Russian: притво́рство (ru) n (pritvórstvo)
• Sanskrit: अपदेश (sa) m (apadeśa)
• Vietnamese: giả tạo (vi)

Further reading

• “pretense”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “pretense”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “pretense”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• Petersen, pre-teens, preteens, terpenes

Spanish

Verb

pretense

1. inflection of pretensar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative