pretend
Americanverb (used with object)
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pretends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pretended,
past participle, past
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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.
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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)
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pretends,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pretended,
past participle, past
-
pretending
present participle
-
to make believe.
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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
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is pretendingprogressive
-
have been pretendingperfect progressive
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has been pretendingperfect progressive
Past
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pretendedsimple
-
had pretendedperfect
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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:
I don’t pretend to know the motivations of Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and other tech titans who last weekend announced their view that the development of artificial intelligence requires government oversight to avert global catastrophe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
So when, like Tom, we can no longer pretend that truly terrible things aren’t happening, what should we do next?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Something intimate died so that something enormous could take its place, and I will not pretend the trade was even.
From Salon ● Sep. 6, 2026
“Rich people can get a private beach and others can’t…I don’t pretend to be holier than anybody, I just do have these feelings.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
I’d have to pretend I didn’t know anything about it—lie, essentially—or tell him the truth about the scroll.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
The case not only ignores these major competitors in the theatrical market but also pretends this market represents the entirety of the competitive playing field.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
"He is not happy, he pretends he is happy," said Tamim.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
“He’s not crazy, he only pretends to be” isn’t a viable defense in the real world.
From Salon ● Apr. 10, 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
Then he pretends to bite into an invisible sandwich.
From "The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl" by Stacy McAnulty
He then pretended to board the old Air Force One, only to secretly switch planes by hiding in a refueling truck, due to security threats.
From Barron's ● Sep. 9, 2026
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
“This is the start of the hard phase and I have never pretended otherwise,” Mladenov said on Monday on social media.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
Rand pretended to be me and I pretended to be Rand,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
The children thought it all a great game; by turns they pretended they were moles in dark tunnels, or explorers charting an unmapped jungle, or Postal Tygers delivering the mail along an unfamiliar route.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
"You don't have to have it all in place at 18, everyone is still kind of just pretending they know what they're doing."
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
He also singled out Anthropic’s Amodei, who he claimed is pretending to be a “perfect little angel,” and ruled out additional AI regulations.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
Ignoring amortization is akin to pretending the ice cube hasn’t gotten smaller.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
When audiences think of acting, they think of actors pretending, like you’re putting yourself in somebody else’s shoes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2026
“You’ve been pretending that nothing happened. It’s as if you’ve blocked it out of your mind. You’ve been indifferent, gallivanting around with James despite these secrets hanging around your neck.”
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
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.
