Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun pretense

5 senses of pretense

Sense 1
pretense, pretence, pretending, simulation, feigning -- (the act of giving a false appearance; "his conformity was only pretending")
       => deception, deceit, dissembling, dissimulation -- (the act of deceiving)

Sense 2
pretense, pretence, feigning, dissembling -- (pretending with intention to deceive)
       => misrepresentation, deceit, deception -- (a misleading falsehood)

Sense 3
pretense, pretence, make-believe -- (imaginative intellectual play)
       => imagination, imaging, imagery, mental imagery -- (the ability to form mental images of things or events; "he could still hear her in his imagination")

Sense 4
pretension, pretense, pretence -- (a false or unsupportable quality)
       => artificiality -- (the quality of being produced by people and not occurring naturally)

Sense 5
guise, pretense, pretence, pretext -- (an artful or simulated semblance; "under the guise of friendship he betrayed them")
       => semblance, gloss, color, colour -- (an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading; "he hoped his claims would have a semblance of authenticity"; "he tried to give his falsehood the gloss of moral sanction"; "the situation soon took on a different color")