pretenses - 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: | act |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | pretended behavior |
| Synonyms: | affectation, attitude, bit*, fake, false front*, front, performance, phony, pose, posture, pretense, sham, show, simulation, soft soap*, stall, stance, stunt, sweet talk*, chaser, dissimilation, feigning, put-on, shuck and jive |
| Notes: | an act is the main dramatic unit and a scene is a division within an act |
* = 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: | bluff |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | boast; deceit |
| Synonyms: | bluster, bravado, deception, delusion, facade, fake, false front, feint, fraud, front, humbug*, lie, pretense, pretext, ruse, sham, show, snow*, stall, subterfuge, trick, braggadocio, bragging, false colors, jiving |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | cant |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | hypocritical statement |
| Synonyms: | deceit, dishonesty, humbug, hypocrisy, insincerity, lip service*, pomposity, pretense, show, affected piety, hypocriticalness, pecksniffery, pharisaicalness, pious platitudes, pretentiousness, sanctimoniousness, sanctimony, sham holiness |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| 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: | color |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | deceptive appearance |
| Synonyms: | deception, disguise, excuse, facade, face, front, guise, mask, plea, pretense, pretext, semblance, show, false show, put-on |
| Main Entry: | cover |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | wrapping, cover-up |
| Synonyms: | awning, bark, binding, camouflage, canopy, canvas, cap, caparison, case, ceiling, cloak, clothing, coating, covering, coverlet, disguise, dome, dress, drop, envelope, facade, false front*, front, guise, hood, integument, jacket, lid, marquee, mask, masquerade, overlay, paint, parasol, polish, pretense, roof, screen, seal, semblance, sheath, sheet, shroud, smoke screen*, spread, stopper, tarpaulin, tent, top, umbrella, varnish, veil, veneer, wrapper, fig leaf, put-on, tarp, tegument, window-dressing, wraps |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| 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: | deceit |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | practice of misleading |
| Synonyms: | artifice, cheating, chicanery, craft, cunning, deceitfulness, deception, dirty pool*, dishonesty, double-dealing, duplicity, fraud, guile, hypocrisy, imposition, pretense, smoke and mirrors*, treachery, trickery, two-timing, ambidexterity, ambidextrousness, chicane, cozening, craftiness, defrauding, dirty dealing, dissemblance, dissimulation, entrapping, fraudulence, overreaching, slyness, trapping, two-facedness, underhandedness |
| Antonyms: | frankness, honesty, truth, truthfulness, uprightness, openness |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | deceit |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | particular type of trick, misleading |
| Synonyms: | artifice, blind, cheat, chicanery, crocodile tears*, deception, dirty work*, duplicity, fake, feint, flimflam*, fraud, hoax, humbug, imposture, misrepresentation, pretense, ruse, sell, sham, shift, smoke and mirrors*, snow job*, soft soap*, spoof, stratagem, subterfuge, sweet talk*, swindle, trick, whitewash*, wile, dirty trick, fraudulence, sellout |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | deception |
| Part of Speech: | noun |
| Definition: | misleading; being dishonest |
| Synonyms: | betrayal, blarney*, cheat, cunning, deceit, deceitfulness, dirt, double-dealing, duplicity, equivocation, falsehood, flimflam*, fraud, guile, hypocrisy, imposition, insincerity, juggling, legerdemain, lying, mendacity, pretense, prevarication, snow job*, sophism, treachery, treason, trickery, trumpery, untruth, beguilement, boondoggle, circumvention, cozenage, craftiness, deceptiveness, defraudation, disinformation, dissimulation, dupery, fast one, fraudulence, hokum, trickiness |
| Antonyms: | frankness, honesty, honor, truth, truthfulness, uprightness, openness, trustworthiness |
* = 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 |
| 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
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.
