pretense

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

n. show, pretension, affectation, sham, imitation, ostentation; makeshift, simulation, excuse, pretext, evasion. See falsehood, vanity.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [The act of pretending]

Syn. affectation, misrepresentation, falsification, act, deceit, fabrication, trickery, double-dealing, misstatement, shuffling, falsifying, simulation, excuse, insincerity, profession, ostentation, assumption, dissembling, dissimulation, evasion, equivocation, prevarication, egotism, brazenness, arrogance, dandyism, foppery, servility, toadyism, obsequiousness, sycophancy, cringing, truckling, timeserving, complacency, smugness, priggishness, prudishness, coyness, formality, stiffness, blind*, smoke screen*; see also dishonesty , imitation 1 .

Ant. honesty*, candor, sincerity.

2. [Something pretended]

Syn. gloss, falsehood, lie, falseness, affectedness, affectation, mask, cloak, show, excuse, subterfuge, pretext, fraud, appearance, seeming, semblance, wile, ruse, sham, airs, claim, mannerism; see also deception 1 , imitation 2 , trick 1 .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) (VOCABULARY WORD) n.

[PREE tens]

a falsification, put-on, show or affectation.

His claim of being rich was only a pretense to impress women.

SYN.: falsification, put-on, show, affectation, imposture, fake, display, act, charade, showing off, facade, simulation, masquerade, posing, ruse, trick.

ANT.: truth, reality, honest

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The presentation of something false as true: charade, make-believe. See HONEST, TRUE. 2. A display of insincere behavior: act, acting, disguise, dissemblance, masquerade, sham, show, simulation. See HONEST, TRUE. 3. Artificial behavior adopted to impress others: affectation, affectedness, air (used in plural), mannerism, pose. See HONEST, TRUE. 4. A professed rather than a real reason: pretension, pretext. See HONEST. 5. A deceptive outward appearance: cloak, color, coloring, cover, disguise, disguisement, façade, face, false colors, front, gloss, guise, mask, masquerade, pretext, semblance, show, veil, veneer, window-dressing. Slang: put-on. See SHOW. 6. A legitimate or supposed right to demand something as one's rightful due: claim, pretension, title. Slang: dibs. See OWNED, REQUEST.