pretender
noun
Simple meaning
Someone who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
preetehnderSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹiˈtɛndɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
One who pretends or lays claim to something; one who makes a profession, show, or assertion, especially without adequate grounds, falsely, or with intent to deceive; a dissembler, deceiver, charlatan, hypocrite.
One who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something; a claimant, candidate, or aspirant; now, one who makes baseless pretensions.
A claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title)
A claimant to a throne or the office of a ruler; originally in a neutral sense, but now always applied to a claimant who is held to have no just title.
A person who makes deceitful pretenses
A person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: One who pretends or lays claim to something; one who makes a profession, show, or assertion, especially without adequate grounds, falsely, or with intent to deceive; a dissembler, deceiver, charlatan, hypocrite.
Used this way, pretender is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It criticises, but without shouting.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Critical but measured
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “pretender” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.