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pretending

noun

Simple meaning

Giving a false appearance.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

preetehnding

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

pɹiˈtɛndɪŋ

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. The act of giving a false appearance

  2. The act of imagining; make-believe.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The act of giving a false appearance

Used this way, pretending is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

stop pretendinguse pretendingpretending ignorance

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • pretendverbBase word

    Make believe with the intent to deceive.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • pretendernounPerson or profession

    A claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title).

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: giving a false appearance

pretensesimulation

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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.