pretender
noun
a person who pretends, especially for a dishonest purpose.
pretenders
-
pluralof pretender.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
I care about L.A. enough to hold its leaders to a higher accountability, and to scrutinize posers and pretenders who think they can do a better job.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2026
Friends turn into enemies and enemies become friends, among politicians and pretenders.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
Corny posers and pretenders didn’t care about sneakers the way we did; that feeling of opening up a box of new Jordan’s was something that we owned.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2024
That’s one short of a record for one regular-season weekend — not including conference title games — and an opportunity to identify serious playoff contenders, maybe expose pretenders and set the tone for conference races.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 20, 2023
Masters of power politics, engineers of genius, the Mexica were also upstarts and pretenders, arrivistes who falsely claimed a brilliant line of descent.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
