PRETENCE

n. 1 show, display, pretension, ostentation, airs, front, façade, appearance, make-believe, fiction, hypocrisy, fakery, faking, feigning, humbuggery, humbug, deception, artifice, pretext, posturing, pretentiousness, pretending, camouflage, cover-up Her charming manner was all pretence, for in reality she despised him 2 hoax, humbug, artifice, pretext, sham, show, pose, façade, front, cover-up, cover, cloak, veil, mask, masquerade, disguise, guise, deception, ruse, dodge, blind, fabrication, invention, fiction, story, fable, make-believe, fairy tale, figment, falsification, impression His loyalty was a pretence under which he carried on many liaisons 3 excuse, pretext, pretension They would ring for the butler on the slightest pretence, just to impress us