He made a pretense of knowing my father.
Source: tatoeba (297984)
Pretense
//ˈpɹiːtɛns//
Synonyms for "pretense" (174 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (35)
Strong matches (52)
Related words (87)
inalienable rightinsincerityinterestlame excuselocus standiloftinesslofty affectationsmake believemake-believemannerismmaskmasquerademere showmeretriciousnessnatural rightostensible motiveostentostentationostentatiousnessoutward show
Show 60 more words
pageantplayactingpoor excuseposeposingposturepowerprerogativeprescriptionpresumptive rightpretentiousnessproper claimproperty rightprotestationprunes and prismspublic imagepublic motiveput offput onput-offput-onputting on airsrational groundrationalereasonreason forreason whyrefugerepresentationrightscreenseemingsemblanceshowsimulacrumsimulationsmoke screenspeciousnessstalking horsestalking-horsestated causestratagemstylishnessthe big ideathe ideathe whatforthe whereforethe whytitletrickunderlying reasonunnaturalnessvarnishveilvested interestvested rightwhat forwhereforewhywindow dressing
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
14 entriesSynonyms
9 entriesRelated terms
6 entriesderived
3 entrieshas context
1 entriesis a
3 entriesrelated to
7 entriesTranslations
28 translations across 16 languages.
Ancient Greek
3 entries- μύνη noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- πρόφασις noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- σκῆψις noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Arabic
1 entries- ذريعة noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Bulgarian
2 entries- преструване noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- увъртане noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Czech
1 entries- předstírání noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Esperanto
2 entries- pretendo noun (unsupported claim)
- ŝajnigo noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
French
1 entries- prétention noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
German
4 entries- Anschein noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- Heucheln noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- Vorspiegelung noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- Vortäuschen noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Hindi
1 entries- बहाना noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Irish
1 entries- cur i gcéill noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Latin
1 entries- praetextum nm calumnia noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Ottoman Turkish
1 entries- قولپ noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Russian
1 entries- притво́рство noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Sanskrit
1 entries- अपदेश noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Spanish
4 entries- achaque noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- cubierta noun (unsupported claim)
- pretensión noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
- pretenso noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Swedish
1 entries- förevändning noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Vietnamese
1 entries- giả tạo noun (act of pretending or pretension; false or hypocritical profession)
Sample sentences
17 total sentences available.
Let's drop the pretense.
Source: tatoeba (10904935)
Mere pretense won't do.
Source: tatoeba (11343915)
He says the accusation was just a pretense to grab his land, and he thinks the communal violence has everything to do with his ethnicity.
Source: tatoeba (11734042)
Showing 4 of 17 available sentences.
Keep exploring
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.