Meaning

6 senses
  1. (countable, uncountable)The action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.

    He visited the king under the pretense of friendliness.

    "Lady Little", the title that she used, was just a pretense.

    Vortäuschung, Vorspiegelung, Vortäuschen

    притво́рствоpritvórstvo

    the act of giving a false appearance

  2. (uncountable)Affectation or ostentation of manner.

    She was a plain-speaking woman without a hint of pretense.

  3. (countable, uncountable)Intention or purpose not real but professed.

    with only a pretense of accuracy

  4. (countable, uncountable)An unsupported claim made or implied.

  5. (countable, uncountable)An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.

  6. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Intention; design.

    pretending with intention to deceive

Examples

6 sentences
  1. That agreement was signed under false pretenses.

    CC0 · Tatoeba · shekitten · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  2. He made a pretense of knowing my father.

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  3. We just saw his pretenses of moderate politics fall to pieces.

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  4. You've got a lot of nerve bringing me here under false pretenses.

    deDu hast vielleicht Nerven, mich hier unter falschem Vorwand herzubringen.

    CC BY · Tatoeba · darinmex · C1Open on TatoebaReport a problem
  5. Let's drop the pretense.

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Translations

4 languages
Русский
By meaning 1
act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession:
Deutsch
By meaning 1
act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession:

Origin

Borrowed from Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin praetēnsus, past participle of Lati

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

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: pretenses

Synonyms

15 synonyms
Close in meaning

Word family

9 related words

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
pretense — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto