Dictionary

pretense en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /ˈpɹiːtɛns/

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.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.
   • "Lady Little", the title that she used, was just a pretense.
   • Great armaments were, therefore, put on foot in Moravia and Bohemia, while the elector of Saxony, under a pretence of military parade, drew together about ſixteen thouſand men, which were poſted in a ſtrong ſituation at Pirna. 1771, [Oliver] Goldsmith, “George II. (Continued.)”, in The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. […], volume IV, London: […] T[homas] Davies, […]; [T.] Becket and [P. A.] De Hondt; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, pages 365–366:
   • The London Saturday Review pays the following well-merited compliment to two American lady authors: “Very few of even our best writers can compass a book for the young which shall be all that it ought to be, avoiding, on the one hand, extravagant sensationality and a standard so high as to be outside human nature altogether; on the other, vapid silliness, which no grown girl can accept as fitting food for her mind at all, and which irritates, as all pretense and make-believe must.[…]” 1870 October 20, The Revolution, volume VI, number 16 (whole 146), New York, N.Y., page 245, column 2:
   • That part of education that turned up in the latest phase of our argument, the cross-examination of the empty pretence of wisdom, is none other, we must declare, than the true-blooded kind of sophistry. 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 231b:
   • There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. [...] Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams. 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC, pages 10–11:
   • She appeared to weep uncontrollably, but it was all pretense.
   • In pilot work we have used the method described in Experiment 2 on children′s memory for the content of their own false beliefs and pretence and asked them to differentiate between belief and pretence. 1995, Charlie Lewis, Peter Mitchell, Children′s Early Understanding Of Mind: Origins And Development, page 281:
   • He visited the king under the pretense of friendliness.
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.
   • He was gentlemanly, steady, tractable, with a thorough knowledge of his duties; and in time, when yet very young, he became chief mate of a fine ship, without ever having been tested by those events of the sea that show in the light of day the inner worth of a man, the edge of his temper, and the fibre of his stuff; that reveal the quality of his resistance and the secret truth of his pretences, not only to others but also to himself. 1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter II, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC, page 9:
   • They wished to demask hidden metaphysics, to demask the false pretenses of sentences purportively descriptive but de facto metaphysical or evaluative. 1968, Gerard Radnitzky · · Snippet view, Contemporary Schools of Metascience, page 114:
5. (countable, uncountable) An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.
   • His visit was duly paid. He came with a pretence at an apology from their sister-in-law, for not coming too […] 1811, [Jane Austen], chapter XI, in Sense and Sensibility […], volume II, London: […] C[harles] Roworth, […], and published by T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC:
6. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Intention; design.
   • A very pretence and purpose of unkindness. c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv]:

Forms

Deriveds

pretensed · pretenseless · pretenseful

Relateds

pretender · pretension · pretentiosity · pretentiousness · pretend · pretentious

Synonyms

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

Translations (29)

bg предло́г (unsupported claim) · de Vorwand (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · eo ŝajnigo (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · ga cur i gcéill (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · de Anschein (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · de Heucheln (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · sv förevändning (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · grc σκῆψις (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · grc μύνη (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · la praetextum nm calumnia (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · sa अपदेश (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · bg увъртане (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · de Vortäuschung (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · grc πρόφασις (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · vi giả tạo (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · eo pretendo (unsupported claim) · ota قولپ (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · fr prétention (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · es pretensión (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · de Vorspiegelung (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · es pretenso (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · de Vortäuschen (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · hi बहाना (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · es achaque (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · cs předstírání (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · bg преструване (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · ru притво́рство (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · ar ذريعة (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession) · es cubierta (unsupported claim)