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Synonyms

arrière-pensée

American  
[a-ryer-pahn-say] / a rjɛr pɑ̃ˈseɪ /

noun

French.
  • arrière-pensées
    plural
  1. a mental reservation; hidden motive.


arrière-pensée British  
/ arjɛrpɑ̃se /

noun

  1. an unrevealed thought or intention

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms


Etymology

Origin of arrière-pensée

C19: literally: behind thought


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:

He was perfectly frank and manly: he spoke without arrière-pensée, he meant what he said, and was ready to believe that other people meant it too.

From A True Friend A Novel by Adeline Sergeant

The Girondists alone had an arrière-pensée in their apparent favour towards him.

From History of the Girondists, Volume I Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution by H. T. Ryde

He possessed a virtue rare among artists, that of gratitude without arrière-pensée.

From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

And I watched him tip the waiter without the least arrière-pensée on either side.

From Mr. Justice Raffles by E. W. (Ernest William) Hornung

The latter, at last, answered him, not condescendingly, as Alyosha had feared, but with modesty and reserve, with evident goodwill and apparently without the slightest arrière-pensée.

From The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The envoys noticed that their words had ingeniously been twisted, but as they also had their own arrière-pensées in regard to the Turks, they only looked at each other with a smile and withdrew.

From The Slaves of the Padishah by M?r J?kai

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