pretend
Americanverb (used with object)
-
pretends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pretended,
past participle, past
-
pretending
present participle
-
to cause or attempt to cause (what is not so) to seem so.
to pretend illness; to pretend that nothing is wrong.
- Synonyms:
- counterfeit, sham, fake, simulate
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to appear falsely, as to deceive; feign.
to pretend to go to sleep.
-
to make believe.
The children pretended to be cowboys.
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to presume; venture.
I can't pretend to say what went wrong.
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to allege or profess, especially insincerely or falsely.
He pretended to have no knowledge of her whereabouts.
verb (used without object)
-
pretends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pretended,
past participle, past
-
pretending
present participle
-
to make believe.
-
to lay claim to (usually followed byto ).
She pretended to the throne.
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to make pretensions (usually followed byto ).
He pretends to great knowledge.
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Obsolete. to aspire, as a suitor or candidate (followed byto ).
adjective
verb
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(when tr, usually takes a clause as object or an infinitive) to claim or allege (something untrue)
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(tr; may take a clause as object or an infinitive) to make believe, as in a play
you pretend to be Ophelia
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to present a claim, esp a dubious one
to pretend to the throne
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obsolete to aspire as a candidate or suitor (for)
adjective
Synonym Usage
Pretend, affect, assume, feign imply an attempt to create a false appearance. To pretend is to create an imaginary characteristic or to play a part: to pretend sorrow. To affect is to make a consciously artificial show of having qualities that one thinks would look well and impress others: to affect shyness. To assume is to take on or put on a specific outward appearance, often (but not always) with intent to deceive: to assume an air of indifference. To feign implies using ingenuity in pretense, and some degree of imitation of appearance or characteristics: to feign surprise.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pretendsimple
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pretendssimple
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have pretendedperfect
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has pretendedperfect
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am pretendingprogressive
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are pretendingprogressive
-
is pretendingprogressive
-
have been pretendingperfect progressive
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has been pretendingperfect progressive
Past
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pretendedsimple
-
had pretendedperfect
-
was pretendingprogressive
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were pretendingprogressive
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had been pretendingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pretend
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English pretenden, from Latin praetendere “to stretch forth, put forward, pretend.” See pre-, tend 1
Explanation
To pretend is to act as if you're someone else. If you pretend to be your mother for a phone conference with your math teacher, try putting on her high heels to help you get into character. When children or actors are pretending, it's fine, just playing. But if you pretend to someone who doesn't know you're just playing, you're likely to be condemned for it. No one likes it of you pretend to be a good member of the community just so people won't suspect you when you steal things from their houses. You might pretend you went to Harvard to impress someone, but if he finds out you didn't, he'll be very unimpressed.
Vocabulary lists containing pretend
"Eleven"
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"Eleven," Vocabulary from the short story
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"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll, Chapters 1–3
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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:
Cohen’s office, in a statement, said “California should not pretend an owner has been found merely because the mail was not returned.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
They can’t pretend that speeding through the breeze could liberate them from day-to-day life, and the singer asks, retrospectively, “Do you look forward to the past / Or forward to today?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
On top of the already planned changes, Burnham is also vowing to end shops' use of "pretend prices".
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
Jamil later defended her post, pointing to the “young girls” who are watching the situation unfold, adding, “We don’t have to pretend we are blind because it’s a pop star.”
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
So I pretend I don’t hear her and keep walking past, with my eyes straight ahead, until I get to the computer lab.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
What’s disheartening is that she pretends there is no connection, telling Vogue Italia last week, “Algorithms and artificial intelligence are the opposite of taking risks to me, and that is the opposite of making art.”
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
"He is not happy, he pretends he is happy," said Tamim.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
The bot’s final product is exactly that: an essay that pretends to divulge, to confess, to promise, and to portray.
From Slate ● Mar. 20, 2026
Sean O'Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the country's biggest unions, verbally attacked Mullin at a 2023 hearing, calling him a "greedy CEO who pretends like he's self-made".
From BBC ● Mar. 18, 2026
He pretends to blow me a kiss, without actually breathing my way.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
In 2024, the Foreign Office confirmed then-foreign secretary Lord Cameron had been the victim of a hoax call in which someone pretended to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Writes Ms. Aviv: “He pretended to speak casually, Andrea said, but she noticed a defiant thrill on his face.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Rand pretended to be me and I pretended to be Rand,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Then she grabbed her Bible, pretended to flip through it and said, “Let me just check. Yes!”
From Salon ● Jun. 12, 2026
There was no one in sight, so I pretended I hadn’t heard him and left the door open, then went to the window as if I was drawn there by the view.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
The military has also historically understood something Hegseth apparently does not: Morale does not come from pretending everything is fine.
From Salon ● Aug. 29, 2026
“I had basically been cosplaying as an angel in their house for the last three or four months, pretending that I was perfect,” Tiedemann says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
My arms are extended at my sides and I’m leaning forward slightly — not unlike a 3-year-old pretending to be an airplane readying for takeoff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham on Tuesday confirmed he had exchanged messages with someone pretending to be US President Donald Trump's chief of staff.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
She watched, waiting for something to happen, but the two girls just remained where they were, pretending they were completely transfixed by the movie in front of them.
From "Night Owls" by A.R. Vishny
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.
