Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See pretense.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • See pretense, pretenseful, pretenseless.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun British An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun pretending with intention to deceive
  • noun imaginative intellectual play
  • noun a false or unsupportable quality
  • noun an artful or simulated semblance
  • noun the act of giving a false appearance

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin praetensus (prætensus) (past participle of praetendere (prætendere), prae- (præ-) + tendere).

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