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Noun: pretense  'pree,ten(t)s or pri'ten(t)s
Usage: N. Amer (elsewhere: pretence)
  1. The act of giving a false appearance
    "his conformity was only pretense";
    - pretence [Brit, Cdn], pretending, simulation, feigning
     
  2. Pretending with intention to deceive
    - pretence [Brit, Cdn], feigning, dissembling
     
  3. Imaginative intellectual play
    - pretence [Brit, Cdn], make-believe
     
  4. A false or unsupportable quality
    - pretension, pretence [Brit, Cdn]
     
  5. An artful or simulated semblance
    "under the pretense of friendship he betrayed them";
    - guise, pretence [Brit, Cdn], pretext

Derived forms: pretenses

Type of: artificiality, color [US], colour [Brit, Cdn], deceit, deception, dissembling, dissimulation, gloss, imagery, imagination, imaging, mental imagery, misrepresentation, semblance

Encyclopedia: Pretense

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