pretext
Americannoun
-
pretexts
plural
-
something that is put forward to conceal a true purpose or object; an ostensible reason; excuse.
The leaders used the insults as a pretext to declare war.
-
the misleading appearance or behavior assumed with this intention.
His many lavish compliments were a pretext for subtle mockery.
- Synonyms:
- evasion, subterfuge
noun
-
a fictitious reason given in order to conceal the real one
-
a specious excuse; pretence
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pretext
1505–15; < Latin praetextum pretext, ornament, noun use of neuter past participle of praetexere to pretend, literally, to weave in front, hence, adorn. See pre-, texture
Explanation
Pretext is a false reason given for doing something. If you catch your mother going through your drawers, and she says she was just tidying up, cleaning was her pretext for snooping. Sometimes a government will try to take away its citizens' rights under the pretext of national security. Though pretext sounds like text that comes before other text, the text you see in it is actually more closely related to the word textile, meaning fabric. Its Latin root meant pretty much "to pull the wool over someone's eyes."
Vocabulary lists containing pretext
Animal Farm
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Grade 11, List 2
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The audit found that gang units citywide routinely flouted the department’s rules on pretext stops, including by often failing to obtain proper consent to search vehicles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 1, 2026
In February, when Russia opened a case against him, Durov described it as a pretext to restrict Russians’ privacy and free speech.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
We still see this in so many cases involving the Fourth Amendment, when police use the alleged smell of marijuana as a pretext for an illegal search.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
Eventually, they flew her to Ahmedabad under the pretext of visiting a sick relative.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
It just about shattered every defense mechanism and every pretext I had against going to school.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
No surprise, the panel agreed with him and concocted pretexts to kill the treatment—for instance, the staff opined that maybe biopsies had zapped the tumors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
He is facing his own criminal probe related to cost overruns during renovations of Fed properties - concerns he has called "pretexts".
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026
The same month Iraq's embassy in Moscow warned of "attempts to lure or coerce some Iraqis residing in Russia or abroad into joining the war under various pretexts".
From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2025
The pretexts are flimsy; due process is absent, and mistakes have already been made.
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2025
Resignations occurred upon discreditable pretexts, and became alarmingly prevalent.
From The Loyalists of Massachusetts And the Other Side of the American Revolution by James H. Stark
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
