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pretense

Dictionary definition · pretense

noun

  1. the act of giving a false appearance"his conformity was only pretending"
  2. pretending with intention to deceive
  3. imaginative intellectual play
  4. a false or unsupportable quality
  5. an artful or simulated semblance"under the guise of friendship he betrayed them"

Source: Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0).