noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   British standard spelling of pretense. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the act of giving a false appearance wordnet
3. 3
   an artful or simulated semblance wordnet
4. 4
   a false or unsupportable quality wordnet
5. 5
   imaginative intellectual play wordnet

Show 1 more definition

6. 6
   pretending with intention to deceive wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

guisepretensionairsappearanceartificeblind

Example

More examples

"He has not gotten in touch with me for a long time under the pretence of being busy."

Related phrases

escutcheon of pretencefalse pretence

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.