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pretense - 20 thesaurus results
| Main Entry: | pretense |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | falsehood, affected show; cover |
| Synonyms: | act, acting, affectation, appearance, artifice, charade, claim, cloak, deceit, deception, display, double-dealing*, evasion, excuse, fabrication, facade, gag, guise, insincerity, invention, make-believe, mask, masquerade, misrepresentation, misstatement, ostentation, pretext, routine, ruse, semblance, sham*, simulation, stall, stunt, subterfuge, trickery, veil, veneer, wile, dissimulation, dumb act, fakery, faking, falsification, feigning, posing, posturing, pretentiousness, schtick, shuffling |
| Antonyms: | honesty, reality, truth, openness |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | acting |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | entertaining, performing |
| Synonyms: | assuming, depiction, enactment, histrionics, imitating, imitation, impersonation, improvisation, mime, mimicry, performance, portrayal, pretending, pretense, rendition, seeming, theatre, characterization, dramatics, dramatizing, enacting, feigning, hamming, pantomime, play acting, playing, portraying, posing, posturing, putting, showing off, simulating, stagecraft, stooging, theatricals |
| Main Entry: | affectation |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | pretended behavior to make an impression |
| Synonyms: | air, airs, appearance, facade, false front*, front, imitation, insincerity, mannerism, pose, pretense, pretension, sham*, show, simulation, artificiality, going Hollywood, pretentiousness, put-on, putting on airs, showing off |
| Antonyms: | simplicity, naturalness |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | airs |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | affectation; pretended behavior |
| Synonyms: | arrogance, false front, front, haughtiness, hauteur, mannerism, ostentation, pomposity, pose, pretense, pretension, show, affectedness, pretentiousness, put-on, superciliousness |
| Antonyms: | personality, truthfulness, realness |
| Main Entry: | claim |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | property, right demanded or reserved |
| Synonyms: | affirmation, allegation, application, assertion, birthright, call, case, declaration, demand, dibs, due, entreaty, interest, lien, part, petition, plea, prerogative, pretense, pretension, privilege, profession, reclamation, request, requirement, requisition, suit, title, ultimatum, counterclaim, postulation, protestation |
| Main Entry: | cover-up |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | attempt to conceal embarrassing or scandalous information |
| Synonyms: | burial*, camouflage, complicity, concealment, conspiracy, evasion, front, pretense, whitewash, closeting, disguising, dissimulation, hush-up, masking, placing under wraps, seal of secrecy, smoke-screen, veil of secrecy |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | decoy |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | bait, trap |
| Synonyms: | attraction, beard*, blind, booster, camouflage, catch, chicanery, come-on, deception, enticement, facade, fake, front, imitation, inducement, lure, plant, pretense, sitting duck*, snare, stick, stool pigeon*, temptation, trick, trickery, allurement, blow off*, chicane, drawing card, ensnarement, inveiglement, nark, seducement, shill, stoolie |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | disguise |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | covering, makeup for deception |
| Synonyms: | beard, blind, camouflage, charade, cloak, color, coloring, concealment, costume, counterfeit, cover-up, dress, facade, face, false front*, front*, guise, illusion, make-believe, mask, masquerade, pageant, pen name, pretense, pretension, pseudonym, red herring*, screen, semblance, smoke screen*, trickery, veil, veneer, dissimulation, faking, fig leaf, get-up, pretentiousness, put-on |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | euphemism |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | nice way of saying something |
| Synonyms: | circumlocution, delicacy, inflation, pomposity, pretense, floridness, grandiloquence, purism |
| Notes: | dysphemism is the substitution of a disagreeable word or phrase for a neutral or positive one (also a word or phrase so substituted); it is the opposite of euphemism |
| Main Entry: | facade |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | appearance, often deceptive |
| Synonyms: | beard*, bluff, color, disguise, exterior, face, fake, false front*, front, guise, look, mask, phony, pretense, semblance, show, veneer, window dressing*, false colors, frontage, put-on |
| Antonyms: | character, personality |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | fake |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | imposter, copy |
| Synonyms: | actor, charlatan, cheat, counterfeit, deception, fabrication, flimflam*, forgery, fraud, hoax, imitation, imposition, imposture, make-believe, mountebank, phony, plant*, pretender, pretense, pseudo*, reproduction, scam, sham*, sleight, spoof, swindle, trick, bluffer, faker, four-flusher, gold brick, junque, put-on |
| Antonyms: | original, reality |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | falsehood |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | lie |
| Synonyms: | canard, cover-up, deceit, deception, dishonesty, distortion, equivocation, error, fable, fabrication, fallacy, falsity, fib, fiction, figment, fraud, hogwash*, line, mendacity, misstatement, perjury, pretense, prevarication, sham*, story, tale, tall tale*, untruth, whopper*, yarn, dissimulation, erroneousness, fakery, fallaciousness, falseness, feigning, fibbery, half truth, untruism, untruthfulness |
| Antonyms: | truth |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | fooling |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | joking, tricks |
| Synonyms: | farce, high jinks, horseplay, jesting, mockery, nonsense, pretense, roughhouse, sham*, teasing, trifling, bluffing, buffoonery, clownishness, frolicking, joshing, kidding, making light, roughhousing, rowdiness, skylarking, spoofing |
| Antonyms: | seriousness |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | imposture |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | fraud, trick |
| Synonyms: | artifice, cheat, con, copy, counterfeit, deceit, deception, fabrication, fake, feint, fiddle, flimflam*, forgery, gambit, hoax, hocus-pocus*, illusion, imitation, impersonation, imposition, make-believe, maneuver, masquerade, phony, ploy, pretense, pretension, quackery, ruse, sell*, sham, sleight, spoof, stratagem, swindle, wile, put-on |
| Antonyms: | honesty, reality, truth |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | make-believe |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | unreality |
| Synonyms: | charade, disguise, dream, fairy tale, fantasy, imagination, pageant, pretense, pretension, sham, dissimulation, fakery, playacting, pretentiousness |
| Antonyms: | reality, truth |
| Main Entry: | mask |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | false face, cover |
| Synonyms: | affectation, air*, appearance, aspect, beard*, blind, camouflage, cloak*, concealment, cover-up, disguise, facade, front, guise, hood, masquerade, pose, posture, pretense, pretext, screen, semblance, show*, simulation, veil*, veneer, visage, window dressing*, disguisement, dissembling, dissimulation, domino, fig leaf, put-on, visor |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | masquerade |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | disguise; social occasion for disguises |
| Synonyms: | Mardi Gras, carnival, circus, cloak, color, costume, cover, cover-up, deception, facade, festivity, front, guise, impersonation, imposture, mask, masked ball, pose, pretense, revel, screen, show, subterfuge, veil, costume ball, dissimulation, domino, masking, mummery, personation, put-on |
| Main Entry: | nonsense |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | craziness, ridiculousness |
| Synonyms: | absurdity, babble, balderdash*, baloney*, bombast, bull*, bunk*, claptrap*, drivel, fatuity, flightiness, folly, foolishness, fun, gibberish, hogwash*, hot air*, imprudence, inanity, jazz, jest, joke, madness, mumbo jumbo*, palaver, poppycock*, prattle, pretense, ranting, rashness, rot, rubbish, scrawl, scribble, silliness, soft soap*, stupidity, thoughtlessness, trash*, tripe*, bananas, giddiness, hooey, irrationality, jive*, ludicrousness, senselessness |
| Antonyms: | clarity, common sense, fact, sense, truth, understanding, intelligibility |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | pose |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | artificial position |
| Synonyms: | act, affectation, air, attitude, bearing, carriage, facade, fake, front, guise, mannerism, masquerade, mien, posture, pretense, pretension, role, stance, stand, attitudinizing, false show, positure, posturing |
| Antonyms: | movement |
| Main Entry: | pretext |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | disguise; alleged reason |
| Synonyms: | affectation, alibi, appearance, bluff, cloak, color*, coloring*, cover, cover-up*, device, excuse, face, feint, front, guise, mask, masquerade, plea, ploy, pretense, red herring*, routine, ruse, semblance, show, simulation, song and dance*, stall, stratagem, subterfuge, veil*, cleanup, cop-out, cover story, fig leaf |
| Antonyms: | reality, truth |
* = informal/non-formal usage
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2009 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2009, Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
