Pretend

//pɹəˈtɛnd//

Synonyms for "pretend" (123 found)

Ranked by relevance and common usage.

Closest matches (25)

dissemble feign make believe profess act affect counterfeit sham simulate act a part adopt aim to allege appropriate arrogate artificial aspire assume attempt attempt to

Show 3 more words

avow believe bluff

Verb(2 words)

act affect

Strong matches (37)

Related words (61)

lord make make a pretense make a show of make as if make bold make free make like make out make out like mock overact play play a part play a scene play god play possum playact pose presume

Show 31 more words

Verb(6 words)

make make believe make like profess sham venture

Adjective(1 words)

make-believe

Noun(2 words)

make-believe pretending

Adjective(1 words)

mimic

Related word relations

OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.

13 relation types

More general

22 entries

acquit act arrogate bear behave belie carry claim comport conduct deport do feigning lay claim misrepresent play

Showing 16 of 22 words.

Synonyms

17 entries

act affect aspire counterfeit deem dissemble falsify feign guess imagine lie make make believe profess sham simulate

Showing 16 of 17 words.

Related terms

5 entries

pretender pretense pretension pretentious pretentiousness

derived

10 entries

Pretendian Pretendolino make pretend outpretend pretended pretendedly pretendingly pretendingness unpretended unpretending

etymologically related_to

1 entries

tend

has first_subevent

9 entries

act act on stage decide what pretending fool others get laid imagine make believe put yourself into another's shoes willingly suspend disbelief

has last_subevent

3 entries

forget reality laugh use imagination

has prerequisite

26 entries

act act in manner act smart become actor day dream engage imagination fake false forget reality good liar have fun with have good imagination have imagination ignore reality imagane imagine

Showing 16 of 26 words.

has subevent

14 entries

act beeing caught can fool daydreams fun imagine imagine scenario laughter lie losing touch with reality people believe religion use imagination vision of loveliness

manner of

1 entries

claim

motivated by_goal

13 entries

actor deceive fool fool others fun makes others happy people to think highly of perform character in play playful playing truth can hurt trying to fool were acting

related to

18 entries

allege appear deception deliberate extend falsely feign hidden intend lay claim make believe pretender pretense pretension pretentious pretentiousness

Showing 16 of 18 words.

similar

16 entries

acquit act affect bear behave carry comport conduct deport dissemble do feign make make believe sham unreal

Translations

117 translations across 47 languages.

Afrikaans

3 entries

voorgee verb (to claim falsely (that))
voorgee verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
voorgee verb (to feign (a state))

Albanian

1 entries

mëtoj verb (to claim falsely (that))

Arabic

3 entries

اِدَّعَى verb (to claim falsely (that))
تَظَاهَرَ verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
زَعَمَ verb (to claim falsely (that))

Belarusian

3 entries

прыкі́двацца verb (to claim falsely (that))
прыкі́нуцца verb (to claim falsely (that))
прыкіда́цца verb (to claim falsely (that))

Bulgarian

4 entries

престорен adj (imaginary)
да́вам вид verb (to claim falsely (that))
престру́вам се verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
престру́вам се verb (to feign (a state))

Catalan

3 entries

fer veure verb (to claim falsely (that))
fer veure verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
fingir verb (to claim falsely (that))

Chinese Mandarin

2 entries

佯裝 /佯装 verb (to claim falsely (that))
假裝 /假装 verb (to claim falsely (that))

Czech

1 entries

předstírat verb (to claim falsely (that))

Danish

1 entries

foregive verb (to claim falsely (that))

Dutch

3 entries

doen alsof verb (to claim falsely (that))
doen alsof verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
voorgeven verb (to feign (a state))

Esperanto

2 entries

hipokriti verb (to claim falsely (that))
komedii verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))

Finnish

4 entries

teeskennelty adj (imaginary)
teeskentely adj (imaginary)
olla tekevinään verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
teeskennellä verb (to claim falsely (that))

French

4 entries

faire semblant adj (imaginary)
pour de faux adj (imaginary)
faire semblant verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
feindre verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))

Galician

1 entries

finxir verb (to claim falsely (that))

German

3 entries

so tun, als ob verb (to claim falsely (that))
so tun, als ob verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
vortäuschen verb (to feign (a state))

Greek

1 entries

προσποιούμαι verb (to feign (a state))

Hindi

1 entries

ढोंग verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))

Hungarian

1 entries

tettet verb (to feign (a state))

Icelandic

3 entries

láta eins og verb (to claim falsely (that))
þykjast verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
þykjast verb (to feign (a state))

Indonesian

1 entries

berpura-pura verb (to claim falsely (that))

Ingrian

2 entries

loottiissa verb (to claim falsely (that))
näyttää verb (to claim falsely (that))

Irish

3 entries

lig ar verb (to claim falsely (that))
lig ar verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
lig ar verb (to feign (a state))

Italian

3 entries

fare finta verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
fingere verb (to claim falsely (that))
fingere verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))

Japanese

3 entries

...の振りをする verb (to claim falsely (that))
装う verb (to claim falsely (that))
見せ掛ける verb (to claim falsely (that))

Kabuverdianu

3 entries

finji verb (to claim falsely (that))
finji verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
finji verb (to feign (a state))

Kazakh

2 entries

болып көріну verb (to feign (a state))
болғансу verb (to feign (a state))

Korean

2 entries

ㄴ/는/은/인 척하다 verb (to claim falsely (that))
ㄴ/는/은/인 체하다 verb (to claim falsely (that))

Latin

2 entries

fingo verb (to claim falsely (that))
simulo verb (to claim falsely (that))

Lushootseed

1 entries

ʔiw̓adəb verb (to claim falsely (that))

Malay

2 entries

berlagak verb (to claim falsely (that))
berpura-pura verb (to claim falsely (that))

Māori

4 entries

whakakikokiko adj (imaginary)
whakatakune verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
whakatakune verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
whakataruna verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))

Norwegian Bokmål

1 entries

forstille verb (to feign (a state))

Oromo

1 entries

fakkeessuu verb (to feign (a state))

Polish

2 entries

na niby adj (imaginary)
udawać verb (to claim falsely (that))

Portuguese

1 entries

fingir verb (to claim falsely (that))

Romanian

2 entries

preface verb (to claim falsely (that))
pretinde verb (to claim falsely (that))

Russian

4 entries

де́лать вид verb (to claim falsely (that))
претендовать verb (to lay claim to)
прики́дываться verb (to claim falsely (that))
прики́нуться verb (to claim falsely (that))

Scottish Gaelic

1 entries

leig air verb (to claim falsely (that))

Slovak

1 entries

predstierať verb (to claim falsely (that))

Spanish

4 entries

de mentirijillas adj (imaginary)
aparentar verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
asacar verb (to claim falsely (that))
hacer como que verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))

Swedish

2 entries

på låtsas adj (imaginary)
låtsas verb (to claim falsely (that))

Tagalog

3 entries

magkunwari verb (to claim falsely (that))
magkunwari verb (to make oneself appear (to do something))
magkunwari verb (to feign (a state))

Tamil

1 entries

நடி verb (to feign (a state))

Turkish

4 entries

kandırmak verb (to claim falsely (that))
numara yapmak verb (to feign (a state))
rol yapmak verb (to feign (a state))
uydurmak verb (to claim falsely (that))

Ukrainian

2 entries

вдава́ти verb (to claim falsely (that))
удава́ти verb (to claim falsely (that))

Vietnamese

1 entries

giả vờ verb (to claim falsely (that))

Welsh

1 entries

cogio verb (to claim falsely (that))

Sample sentences

36 total sentences available.

Tatoeba + Wiktionary

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

Source: tatoeba (2318)

Even if you know the truth, you had better pretend otherwise at present.

Source: tatoeba (31087)

Let's pretend we are aliens.

Source: tatoeba (32117)

One of them is an actor, who is going to pretend to murder someone.

Source: tatoeba (45101)

Showing 4 of 36 available sentences.

More for "pretend"

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