pretense
noun
Simple meaning
False or simulated show or appearance.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
preetehnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
pɹiˈtɛns
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
countable or uncountable
The action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.
Intention or purpose not real but professed.
An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.
uncountable
Affectation or ostentation of manner.
An unsupported claim made or implied.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Rare
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (countable or uncountable) The action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation.
Used this way, pretense 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.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
The process of simulating.
The act of giving a false appearance.
A false or unsupportable quality.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
An offense involving intent to defraud and false representation and obtaining property as a result of that misrepresentation.
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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.