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• n  the act of giving a false appearance
• n  pretending with intention to deceive
• n  imaginative intellectual play
• n  a false or unsupportable quality
• n  an artful or simulated semblance

• His arrival in Philadelphia is one of the most famous scenes in autobiographical literature: the bedraggled 17-year-old runaway, cheeky yet with a pretense of humility, straggling .
• For last week Charles Augustus Lindbergh and Gerald Prentice Nye cast aside all but the last veil of pretense and, in the pattern established by Adolf Hitler years ago, sought .
• There is no pretense about him.

• pretence
• pretending
• simulation
• feigning
• dissembling
• make-believe
• pretension
• guise
• pretext

News & Articles

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• Law would allow cops to search phones after crashes
  New Jersey lawmakers are considering a bill that would require drivers to hand over their cell phones along with their licenses and registrations when talking to police after a car accident. The bill, proposed by state Sen. James Holzapfel, would give police the right to thumb through the phone’s history of calls and text messages without a warrant, under the pretense of assessing whether or not ...
  June 12, 2013 - NBC NEWS
• Crime report for Tuesday, June 11
  Gladys Renee Watson, 30, of the 5500 block of Turner Street, was charged Monday with misdemeanor financial card use, conspiracy and three counts each of possession of stolen goods, forgery and obtaining property by false pretenses. Bail was set at $14,000.
  June 11, 2013 - The Fayetteville Observer
• 3 Charged With Killing Man Found in Bushes
  Officials say the trio lured Colin Nutter to a secluded stretch of Michigan Avenue in Highwood under the pretense of a marijuana deal and shot him. Photo Credit: Highland Park Police
  June 8, 2013 - NBC Chicago

Quotes

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• Condoleezza Rice in Reuters
  By its actions, the Mugabe regime has given up any pretense that the June 27 elections will be allowed to proceed in a free and fair manner,US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
• Joseph Wilson in Houston Chronicle
  By dropping his appeal, Mr. Libby has finally abandoned the pretense that his conviction was a miscarriage of justice,Wilson said in a statement Monday.
• Rudy Giuliani in San Francisco Chronicle
  One of the things that we need from our people that are running for office is not this pretense of perfection,said Giuliani, who has faced questions about his own personal life marked by three marriages and estrangement from his two children.