Noun pretense has 5 senses
  1. pretense, pretence, pretending, simulation, feigning - the act of giving a false appearance; "his conformity was only pretending"
    --1 is a kind of deception, deceit, dissembling, dissimulation
    --1 has particulars:
     appearance, show; make-believe, pretend; affectation, mannerism, pose, affectedness; masquerade
    Derived form: verb pretend1
  2. pretense, pretence, feigning, dissembling - pretending with intention to deceive
    --2 is a kind of misrepresentation, deceit, deception
    --2 has particulars:
     bluff; pretext, stalking-horse; hypocrisy, lip service
    Derived form: verb pretend1
  3. pretense, pretence, make-believe - imaginative intellectual play
    --3 is a kind of imagination, imaging, imagery, mental imagery
  4. pretension, pretense, pretence - a false or unsupportable quality
    --4 is a kind of artificiality
    Derived form: verb pretend3
  5. guise, pretense, pretence, pretext - an artful or simulated semblance; "under the guise of friendship he betrayed them"
    --5 is a kind of semblance, gloss, color, colour
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