From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpretensepre‧tense /prɪˈtens $ ˈpriːtens/ noun [singular, uncountable] XXthe American spelling of pretence
Examples from the Corpus
pretense• The whistle cuts through all fantasy and pretense.• John then-and this is the important point-was able to deliver on his early pretense and Big Promise potential.• But it will strip away a little pretense and artifice, and maybe even put back a little passion.• Eventually he would turn away, either because he accepted my pretense or because he was not sure it was one.• The hypocrisy is the pretense that the players are scholars whose colleges are competing for the glory of it all.• Now and then, the real priorities and the concealed agenda do break through the pretense of compassion.• She knew a couple of friends elsewhere who lived together under the pretense of sharing an apartment or duplex.• She was an adventuress, unabashedly ambitious, totally without pretense, searching for fame.Origin pretense (1300-1400) Old French pretensse, from Latin praetendere; → PRETEND1 