Pretense Meaning
/ˈpɹiːtɛns/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.
nounAffectation or ostentation of manner.
Sentence Examples
He made a pretense of knowing my father.
Let's drop the pretense.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
His friendly attitude was just a ____ to hide his true feelings.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He maintained the ____ of friendship while secretly working to undermine his colleague's career.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin praetēnsus, past participle of Latin praetendō (“to pretend”), from prae- (“before”) + tendō (“to stretch”); see pretend.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"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:
"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:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
His friendly attitude was just a ____ to hide his true feelings.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He maintained the ____ of friendship while secretly working to undermine his colleague's career.