Word Type

Noun

Verb

The word "pretending" can be used as noun and verb.

Word Relationships

Causes

acting creating false impression deception distrust erections escaping reality fantasy fantasy wish fulfillment fooled fooling else fooling people fun fun game get good women getting exposed imagination was used live in fantasy world lying may misjudge misunderstanding not people not believing play self illusion

Inflected/Variant Forms

pretend

Prerequisites

acting acting skills creativity deception free imagination imagination imagining making up story using imagination

Subevents

act goofy act like ape act like dog act out role acting acting like superhero becoming too engrossed in game deceiving dress in costume fool yourself fooled forget inventing things never were laughter leave out fact lose touch with reality loss of reality lying make up stories playing put on costume religion smile tell al ie tell lie

Broader Terms (Hypernyms)

deceit deception dissembling dissimulation

Type Of (IsA)

human activity intelligent agent activity

Related Terms

imagining make believe pretend

Synonym Network

pretense

Used For

acting actors alleviating boredom avoiding reality avoiding truth children's games creating false impression creative people deceiving decepting others deception developing imagination exercising imagination exploring possibilities fooling people having fun living in make believe world lying playing sampling scenarios stretching imagination using imagination

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