pretence

1. 1.

   a false or unsupportable quality

   Synonymspretensionpretense

   Broaderartificiality
2. 2.

   an artful or simulated semblance

   “under the guise of friendship he betrayed them”

   Synonymsguisepretensepretext

   Broadersemblance
3. 3.

   pretending with intention to deceive

   Synonymspretensefeigningdissembling

   Broadermisrepresentation

   Narrowerbluffpretexthypocrisy
4. 4.

   imaginative intellectual play

   Synonymspretensemake-believe

   Broaderimagination
5. 5.

   the act of giving a false appearance

   “his conformity was only pretending”

   Synonymspretensepretendingsimulationfeigning

   Broaderdeception

   Narrowerappearancemake-believeaffectationmasquerade

Other forms of pretence

plural

pretences·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about pretence

What does pretence mean?

pretence means "a false or unsupportable quality". That is the primary sense; the word has 5 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in pretence?

pretence has 2 syllables: pre-tence. The stress falls on "pre".

What is another word for pretence?

Close synonyms include pretension, pretense, guise, pretense, pretext. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is pretence a common word?

pretence is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.