Pretense

Definition: Pretense

Pretense

Noun

1. The act of giving a false appearance; "his conformity was only pretending".

2. Pretending with intention to deceive.

3. Imaginative intellectual play.

4. A false or unsupportable quality.

5. An artful or simulated semblance; "under the guise of friendship he betrayed them".

Date "pretense" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Synonyms: Pretense

Synonyms: dissembling (n), feigning (n), guise (n), make-believe (n), pretence (n), pretending (n), pretension (n), pretext (n), simulation (n). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Affectation	Noun: affectation; affectedness; Adjective: acting a part; Verb: pretense; (falsehood), (ostentation); boasting.
Boasting	Noun: boasting; Verb: boast, vaunt, crake; pretense, pretensions; puff, puffery; flourish, fanfaronade; gasconade; blague, bluff, gas; highfalutin, highfaluting; hot air, spread-eagleism; brag, braggardism; bravado, bunkum, buncombe; jactitation, jactancy; bounce; venditation, vaporing, rodomontade, bombast, fine talking, tall talk, magniloquence, teratology, heroics; Chauvinism; exaggeration.
Dissuasion	Pretense; (untruth); put off, dust thrown in the eyes; blind; moonshine; mere pretext, shallow pretext; lame excuse, lame apology; tub to a whale; false plea, sour grapes; makeshift, shift, white lie; special pleading; (sophistry); soft sawder; (flattery).
	Noun: pretext, pretense, pretension, plea; allegation, advocation; ostensible motive, ostensible ground, ostensible reason, phony reason; excuse; (vindication); subterfuge; color; gloss, guise, cover.
	Adverb: ostensibly; under color; under the plea, under the pretense of, under the guise of.
Falsehood	Sham; pretense, pretending, malingering.
Impiety	Adverb: under the mask of religion, under the cloak of religion, under the pretense of religion, under the form of religion, under the guise of religion.
Ostentation	Noun: ostentation, display, show, flourish, parade, etalage, pomp, array, state, solemnity; dash, splash, splurge, glitter, strut, pomposity; pretense, pretensions; showing off; fuss.
Untruth	Pretense, pretext; false plea; subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe; sham; (deception).
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Pretense

English words defined with "pretense": affectation ♦ bluff ♦ Counttenance ♦ divination, doggie bag, doggy bag ♦ foretelling, fortune telling ♦ gilded ♦ Job's comforter ♦ make-believe, mannerism, meretricious ♦ pose, Pretenceless, Pretendence, professedly ♦ Religionism ♦ Saintism, simplicity, sincerely, soothsaying, specious ♦ truly ♦ unfeignedly. (references)

Specialty definitions using "pretense": lexicographer. (references)

Etymologies containing "pretense": Pretendence. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	Aspiring Saints: Pretense of Holiness, Inquisition, and Gender in the Venetian Republic, 1618-1750 (reference) False Pretense (reference) Nurse Julie's Pretense (reference) Pretense (reference) Pretense ... of Innocence (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Under The Pretense of Present Tense (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Jonathan Swift	Pretense is the overrating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.
Publilius Syrus	He who has a mind to do mischief will always find a pretense.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	To remedy which there was a sort of people bred up among us, in the profession or pretense of curing the sick.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Economic History	Nigeria	However, on June 23, Babangida, using several pending lawsuits as a pretense, annulled the election and threw Nigeria into turmoil. (references)
Human Rights	Burma	Moreover, defense attorneys appear to serve no purpose other than to perpetuate the pretense of a fair trial, since reliable reports indicate that senior military authorities dictate verdicts, regardless of the evidence or the law. (references)
	Philippines	The Pentagon Gang, which reportedly also has kidnaped local civilians, has made no pretense of having a political or religious agenda. (references)
Worker Rights	United Arab Emirates	There are reports of women and girls who are brought to the country under the false pretense of working in the service sector or as domestic servants, but then are forced into prostitution. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	LEXICOGRAPHER, n. A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods. For your lexicographer, having written his dictionary, comes to be considered "as one having authority," whereas his function is only to make a record, not to give a law. The natural servility of the human understanding having invested him with judicial power, surrenders its right of reason and submits itself to a chronicle as if it were a statue. Let the dictionary (for example) mark a good word as "obsolete" or "obsolescent" and few men thereafter venture to use it, whatever their need of it and however desirable its restoration to favor -- whereby the process of improverishment is accelerated and speech decays. On the contrary, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense, has no following and is tartly reminded that "it isn't in the dictionary" -- although down to the time of the first lexicographer (Heaven forgive him!) no author ever had used a word that was in the dictionary. In the golden prime and high noon of English speech; when from the lips of the great Elizabethans fell words that made their own meaning and carried it in their very sound; when a Shakespeare and a Bacon were possible, and the language now rapidly perishing at one end and slowly renewed at the other was in vigorous growth and hardy preservation -- sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion -- the lexicographer was a person unknown, the dictionary a creation which his Creator had not created him to create. God said: "Let Spirit perish into Form," And lexicographers arose, a swarm! Thought fled and left her clothing, which they took, And catalogued each garment in a book. Now, from her leafy covert when she cries: "Give me my clothes and I'll return," they rise And scan the list, and say without compassion: "Excuse us -- they are mostly out of fashion." Sigismund Smith
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Phrase(s)
Bill Maher	Well the pretense they're all named Explorer and Navigator and Aviator and Tracker like you're Daniel Boone. Please, you're going to McDonald's to get a McRib in the thing.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
William H. Taft	1909-1913	On the other hand, we must be careful not to encourage the mere pretense of race feeling manufactured in the interest of individual political ambition.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Pretense" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Pretense" is used about 7 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (singular)	100%	7	133,076

Expressions using "pretense": Escutcheon of pretense ♦ false pretense ♦ make no pretense to ♦ make pretense of doing ♦ under the pretense of ♦ under the pretense of religion. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "pretense"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		pretendim (claim, contention, pretence), shtirje (affectation, artificiality, camp, dissimulation, humbug, pretence, pretension, sham). (various references)

Bulgarian		преструвка (affectation, dissimulation, feint, pose, pretence, pretension, sham, simulacrum), претекст (alibi, color, colour, come off, excuse, peg, plea, pretence, pretext, put off, salvo, stalking horse, subterfuge), претенция (claim, counterclaim, pretence, pretension), предлог (excuse, handle, plea, preposition, pretence, pretext). (various references)

Czech		záminka (blind, excuse, handle, pretext), nárok (claim, pretension). (various references)

Farsi		وانمودسازی , تظاهر (Display, Grimace, Ostentation, Pretension, Prudery, Semblance), ادعا (Claim, Plea, Posit, Postulate, Pretension, Purporst), بهانه (Alibi, Evasion, Excuse, Fetch, Fiction, Mask, Peg, Plea, Pretext, Purporst, Subterfuge). (various references)

French		prétention (pretence, pretension, pretentiousness). (various references)

German		vortäuschung (fake, fakery, pretence, simulation). (various references)

Greek		πρόφαση (excuse, pretext). (various references)

Hungarian		látszat (appearance, facade, gloss, guise, likelihood, likeness, make-believe, mockery, outside, presentment, pretence, semblance, shell), szerepjátszás (pretence), jogcím (claim, due, pretence, title, title-deed), igény (claim, demand, need, pretence, pretension, want), áltatás (pretence). (various references)

Indonesian		kepura-puraan (dissimilation), buatan (artificial, make, product, unnatural), aksi (action, boasting, bragging, lawsuit). (various references)

Italian		pretesto (cloak, color, colour, evasion, excuse, handle, occasion, opportunity, peg, plea, pretence, pretext), pretesa (claim, demand, pretence, pretension), simulazione (faking, feigning, pretence, simulation), scusa (alibi, apology, excuse, excuse me, pardon, plea, pretence, sorry, subterfuge), finzione (blind, deceit, deceitfulness, fiction, figment, invention, make believe, Masquerade, pretence, sham), finta (feigning, feint, pretence, sham). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		虚像 (virtual image), 鍍金 (gilt, plating), 矯飾 (affectation), 真似 (behavior, imitation, mimicry), 滅金 (gilt, plating), 出し (broth, dupe, excuse, front man, pretext, stock), 仮託 (pretext). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		きょぞう (gigantic elephant, huge image, virtual image), きょうしょく (affectation, teaching certificate, the teaching profession), まね (behavior, imitation, mimicry), かたく (burning house, domicile, premises, pretext, this world of suffering), めっき (gilt, plating), とき�" (gilt, plating, promoted pawn), � し (broth, dupe, excuse, festival car, front man, pretext, soup stock, stock). (various references)

Pig Latin		etensepray

Portuguese		pretensão (ambition, arrogation, aspiration, assumption, desire, presumption, pretence, pretension, snobbery, want, wish), simulação (affectation, bluff, disguise, feint, leg pull, make-believe, pretence, simulacrum, simulation), manto (cloak, pillow-sham, pretence, robe, screen, tunic, veil), máscara (blind, mask, pretence, shade, smirch, veil, vise, visor, vizard, vizor), fingimento (affectation, cant, disguise, disguising, make-believe, mockery, pose, pretence, simulation), falsa aparência (pretence), capa (binder, cap, capa, cloak, cover, cover page, covering, envelope, hood, kappa, lid, mantle, pillow-sham, pretence, robe, shroud, veil), afetação (affectation, affectedness, airs, assumption, courtliness, coxcombry, frill, mannerism, namby-pamby, pomposity, preciosity, pretence, pretension, primness). (various references)

Russian		отговорка (cloak, come-off, excuse, pretence, stalking-horse). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		pretvaranje (affectation, conversion, converting, guise, pretence, simulation, transformation), varka (delusion, illusion, pretence, sham, will-o'-the-wisp), izgovor (elusion, excuse, loophole, loop-hole, plea, pretence, pretension, pretext, pronunciation). (various references)

Spanish		pretensión (affectation, arrogance, aspiration, claim, offer, offer of marriage, offer of parriage, presumption, pretence, pretension, pretentiousness, proposal). (various references)

Swedish		sken (appearance, bolting, brilliance, color, colour, glare, glimmer, gloss, glow, guise, light, pallet, pretence, refulgence, semblance, sheen, shine, show), förevändning (excuse, pretence, pretext, put off), anspråk (claim, claima, interest, pretence, pretension). (various references)

Turkish		yalandan yapma (pretence, simulation), numara (act, affectation, no, number, pretence, size, stunt, trick), iddia (allegation, argument, assertion, asseveration, averment, bet, charge, claim, contention, contest, information, pleading, pretence, pretension, protestation, say so, submission), hile (adulteration, artifice, arts, canard, catch, cheat, cheating, chicane, cobweb, collusion, craft, cross, deceit, deception, decoy, device, do, dodge, doubling, dupery, duplicity, fake, false pretences, false pretenses, finesse, flam, flimflam, fraud, gadget, gaff, gambit, gammon, gimmick, gouge, hanky panky, have, have on, hocus pocus, hokey-pokey, hoky-poky, humbug, imposture, jiggery pokery, maneuver, manipulation, manoeuvre, plant, ploy, practice, rig, rigging, rip off, ruse, sell, sham, sleight of hand, slyness, subterfuge, tortuosity, trick, trickery, wheeling and dealing, wile). (various references)

Ukrainian		відмовка (come off, excuse, pretence), обман (bam, bamboozle, beguilement, bilk, bluff, bunko, cheat, chouse, circumvention, cozenage, deceit, deception, delusion, do, double cross, foist, fraud, fraudulence, fraudulency, gammon, gouge, guile, hanky panky, hoax, imposture, juggle, jugglery, lie, overreach, phoney, phony, pretence, ruse, sell, sham, swindle, trickery, victimization, wile), претензія (challenge, claim, complaint, demand, pretence, pretension), прикидання (acting, pretence), привід (alibi, cause, cloak, grievance, handle, occasion, pretence, pretext, salvo, subject). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Greek	700 BCE-300 CE	hypokrisis. (various references)
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	simulatio, simulatione, simulationem, simulationes, simulationi. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Mark Chapter 12, Verse 40
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Oi katesqionteV taV oikiaV twn chrwn kai profasei makra proseucomenoi outoi lhyontai perissoteron krima
Latin	405	Vulgate	Qui devorant domos viduarum sub obtentu prolixae orationis hii accipient prolixius iudicium
Old English	990	West Saxon	þa þe wudewena hus for-swelged midheora langsumen ge-bedan. Þa on-foð længestnedom.
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	Whiche deuouren the housis of widewis vndur colour of long preier; thei schulen take the longer doom.
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	And devoure widowes houses and that vnder coloure of longe prayinge. These shall receave greater dampnacion.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	Who devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	Who take away the property of widows, and before the eyes of men make long prayers; these will be judged more hardly.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Mark Chapter 12, Verse 40
Cebuano	sila nga nagasubad sa katigayonan sa mga babayeng balo, ug aron sa pagtabontabon niini nagahimo sila sa hatag-as nga mga pangadye. Mahiaguman ra nila ang labi pa ka mabug-at nga hukom sa silot."
Chinese	他們侵吞寡婦的家 �"� 、假意作很長的禱告．這些人要受更重的刑罰。
Croatian	proždiru kuæe udovièke, još pod izlikom dugih molitava. Stiæi æe ih to oštrija osuda!"
Danish	de, som opæde Enkers Huse og på Skrømt bede længe, disse skulle få des hårdere Dom."
Dutch	Welke de huizen der weduwen opeten, en dat onder den schijn van lang te bidden. Dezen zullen zwaarder oordeel ontvangen.
Finnish	noita, jotka syövät leskien huoneet ja näön vuoksi pitävät pitkiä rukouksia; he saavat sitä kovemman tuomion".
French	qui dévorent les maisons des veuves, et qui font pour l`apparence de longues prières. Ils seront jugés plus sévèrement.
Gaelic	A shluigeas tighean bhantrach air sgath urnaighean fada: gheibh iad sin binn nas cruaidhe.
German	sie fressen der Witwen Häuser und wenden langes Gebet vor. Diese werden desto mehr Verdammnis empfangen.
Haitian Creole	Se piye y'ap piye malerèz yo, an menm tan y'ap plede fè lapriyè byen long pou parèt pi bon. Kondannasyon yo pral pi rèd.
Hungarian	A kik az özvegyeknek házát fölemésztik és színbõl hosszan imádkoznak: ezek súlyosabb ítélet alá esnek.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Mereka menipu janda-janda dan merampas rumahnya. Dan untuk menutupi kejahatan mereka itu, mereka berdoa panjang-panjang. Hukuman mereka nanti berat!"
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	dan yang menghabiskan harta segala janda, dan melanjutkan doanya dengan jalan berpura-pura; mereka itu pun akan terkena hukum yang terlebih berat."
Maori	Ka pau nei i a ratou nga whare o nga pouaru, a ka maminga ki te inoi roa: he nui rawa te mate e pa ki enei.
Norwegian	de som opeter enkers hus og for et syns skyld holder lange bønner! Disse skal få dess hårdere dom.
Portuguese	que devoram as casas das viúvas, e por pretexto fazem longas orações; estes hão de receber muito maior condenação.
Rumanian	casele vqduvelor le mqnkncq, wi fac rugqciuni lungi de ochii lumii. O mai mare oskndq va veni peste ei.``
Russian	УЙЙ, � ПС�"БАЭЙЕ �"ПНЩ Ч�"ПЧ Й ОБ� ПЛБЪ �"ПМЗП НПМСЭЙЕУС, � ТЙНХФ ФСЗЮБКЫЕЕ ПУХЦ�"ЕОЙЕ.
Shuar	Tura wajé jeencha atantainiawai. Túrawar aents nekaracharat tusar ti esaram chichamjai Yúsan áujainiawai. Nincha chikichjai nankaamas Yus asutiawartatui" Tímiayi.
Swahili	Huwanyonya wajane huku wakijisingizia kusali sala ndefu. Siku ya hukumu watapata adhabu kali!"
Swedish	detta under det att de utsuga änkors hus, medan de för syns skull hålla långa böner. De skola få en dess hårdare dom."
Uma	Mpobagiu-ra tobine tobalu, pai' -ra mpohagoi tomi-ra. Rawunii' kadada'a gau' -ra tohe'e hante mosampaya rapomoloe-loe. Motomo lia mpai' huku' -ra."
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "pretense": pretenses. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Pretense" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pertenue, Portuense, precense, prednesol, presense, pretenden, pretenes, pretens, retense, Ritzensee. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "pretense" (pronounced prēte"ns)
4	-t e" n s	intense, tense.
3	-e" n s	commence, commonsense, condense, defence, defense, dense, dispense, expense, fence, hence, immense, incense, nondefense, offense, pence, sense, Spence, suspense, thence, whence.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Direct Anagrams: preteens, terpenes.
	Words within the letters "e-e-e-n-p-r-s-t"
	-1 letter: entrees, penster, present, preteen, repents, retenes, serpent, steepen, steeper, teeners, terpene.
	-2 letters: enters, entree, eterne, nester, pensee, pester, peters, preens, preset, renest, rentes, repent, reseen, resent, retene, serene, sprent, teener, tenser, tepees, ternes, treens.
	-3 letters: enter, epees, ernes, ester, neeps, nerts, peens, peers, penes, perse, peter, preen, prees, prese, prest, reest, rente, rents.
	Words containing the letters "e-e-e-n-p-r-s-t"
	+1 letter: presented, presentee, presenter, pretences, pretenses, repenters, repetends, represent.
	+2 letters: enterprise, epicenters, expertness, hypertense, penetrates, perennates, pertnesses, precedents, predestine, presentees, presenters, presweeten, pretenders, preventers, repellents, represents, serpentine, treponemes, vespertine.
	+3 letters: copresented, enterpriser, enterprises, experiments, hypersthene, intersperse, parentheses, pearlescent, penetrances, pentameters, percentages, percentiles, perfectness, persistence, pertinences, predestined, predestines, preexistent, preferments, presentable, presentence, presentient, presentment, presentness, presweetens, preventives, putrescence, reinspected, repentances, repleteness, represented, representer, resplendent, serpentines, spinnerette, supercenter, telephoners, temperances, terneplates, terpeneless, terrepleins, threepences, truepennies.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.