pretense, especially of an innocent or playful kind; playacting; fantasy.
the make-believe of children playing.
a pretender; a person who pretends.
a fantasy, pretence, or unreality
( as modifier )
a make-believe world
a person who pretends
First recorded in 1805–15
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
As long as Hegseth keeps his chest-thumping and pull-up contests in the land of make-believe, these men are happy.
From Salon • Mar. 13, 2026
Even younger infants show early signs of understanding make-believe.
From Science Daily • Feb. 10, 2026
The product-development system PPG designed isn’t a large language model that is subject to hallucinations, the make-believe answers that can plague chatbots.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 24, 2026
If we’re going to play make-believe, then perhaps Foo-Foo the Snoo can personally escort Peters from prison and crown her Queen of the Rockies.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 21, 2025
No matter how much comfort Ivy got from drawing her treehouse pictures, they were make-believe too.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
Definitions 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.
