pretense

n.

1. The act of pretending; a false appearance or action intended to deceive.
2. A false or studied show; an affectation: a pretense of nonchalance.
3. A professed but feigned reason or excuse; a pretext: under false pretenses.
4. Something imagined or pretended.
5. Mere show without reality; outward appearance.
6. A right asserted with or without foundation; a claim. See synonyms at claim.
7. The quality or state of being pretentious; ostentation.

[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.]

noun

1. The presentation of something false as true: charade, make-believe. See honest/dishonest, true/false.
2. A display of insincere behavior: act, acting, disguise, dissemblance, masquerade, sham, show, simulation. See honest/dishonest, true/false.
3. Artificial behavior adopted to impress others: affectation, affectedness, air (used in plural), mannerism, pose. See honest/dishonest, true/false.
4. A professed rather than a real reason: pretension, pretext. See honest/dishonest.
5. A deceptive outward appearance: cloak, color, coloring, cover, disguise, disguisement, façade, face, false colors, front, gloss, guise, mask, masquerade, pretext, semblance, show, veil, veneer, window-dressing. Slang put-on. See show/hide.
6. A legitimate or supposed right to demand something as one's rightful due: claim, pretension, title. Slang dibs. See owned/unowned, request.

n

Definition: falsehood, affected show; cover
Antonyms: honesty, openness, reality, truth

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 5 meanings:

Meaning #1: the act of giving a false appearance
  Synonyms: pretence, pretending, simulation, feigning

Meaning #2: pretending with intention to deceive
  Synonyms: pretence, feigning, dissembling

Meaning #3: imaginative intellectual play
  Synonyms: pretence, make-believe

Meaning #4: a false or unsupportable quality
  Synonyms: pretension, pretence

Meaning #5: an artful or simulated semblance
  Synonyms: guise, pretence, pretext

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - foregivende, krav, prætention

Nederlands (Dutch)
voorwendsel, valse schijn, ongegronde aanspraak op, doen alsof, pretentie

Français (French)
n. - faux-semblant, simulacre, simulation, prétexte

Deutsch (German)
n. - Vorwand, Verstellung, Anspruch

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - προσποίηση, πρόφαση, πρόσχημα, επίφαση, (αστήρικτη) αξίωση ή διεκδίκηση

Italiano (Italian)
pretesto, scusa, finzione, simulazione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - pretensão (f), fingimento (m), pretexto (m)

Русский (Russian)
предлог, претензия, притворство

Español (Spanish)
n. - pretexto, fingimiento, simulación

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - anspråk, anspråksfullhet, tomt prål, förevändning, förespeglande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
假装, 借口, 虚伪

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 假裝, 藉口, 虛偽

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 구실, 겉치레, 허영

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 見せかけ, 口実, 見せびらかし

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) زعم, تظاهر‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮יומרה, מסווה, התחזות, העמדת-פנים, תביעה, אמתלה‬

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