pretension
1 Americannoun
-
pretensions
plural
-
the laying of a claim to something.
- Synonyms:
- profession, assertion
-
a claim or title to something.
-
Often pretensions a claim made, especially indirectly or by implication, to some quality, merit, or the like.
They laughed at my pretensions to superior judgment.
-
a claim to dignity, importance, or merit.
-
pretentiousness.
- Synonyms:
- pretense, airs, affectation
-
the act of pretending or alleging.
-
an allegation of doubtful veracity.
-
a pretext.
- Synonyms:
- excuse
verb (used with object)
-
(in prestressed-concrete construction) to apply tension to (reinforcing strands) before the concrete is poured; prestress.
-
to make (a concrete member) with pretensioned reinforcement.
noun
-
(often plural) a false or unsupportable claim, esp to merit, worth, or importance
-
a specious or unfounded allegation; pretext
-
the state or quality of being pretentious
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pretension1
First recorded in 1400–50; from Medieval Latin praetēnsiōn- (stem of praetēnsiō ); see pretense, -ion
Origin of pretension2
Explanation
Pretension is what you're guilty of when you boorishly try to impress other people with how important or clever you are. When you speak with pretension, you're boastful and you puff yourself up as someone very important or of great worth. If you have literary pretensions, you most likely think you're a great writer, but you most likely are not. As you might imagine, this word has the same Latin roots as pretend and pretense. A pretension can also be the advancing of a claim.
Vocabulary lists containing pretension
Common Sense
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Pygmalion
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The 57 Bus
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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:
But what I witnessed recently at the end of the trailer for “Avengers: Doomsday” made me glad I didn’t shut my eyes to protect my precious pretension.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
“Art film” is a bit of a dirty term, frequently offered with a sneer when discussing a work so dripping with pretension that even an Airblade wouldn’t be of any help.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
There was a baby-knit culotte and matching polo with Gucci stripe detailing, worn without pretension.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2023
But embedded in such restrictions one may infer either a resistance to having his work pushed to the fringes, or a pretension in contextualizing it as a mainstream experience.
From New York Times ● Aug. 7, 2023
“So besides tempting fate with melted cheese and literary airs of pretension, what else is in your risk-taking repertoire?”
From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed
In Britain, the “angry young men” movement led by John Osborne in the theater was underway, and the social pretensions and expertly crafted witticisms of Coward’s comedies had fallen out of fashion.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
“Fuze” was one of my favorite treats at last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, although unlike many of the other films it premiered alongside, it has no pretensions of being an awards contender.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026
Kenyon’s dig at “uproarious pedantry” nods to James’s intellectual pretensions, which some courtiers derided—even though a learned monarch seems preferable to an ignorant one.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
Reflecting on the press, he later noted, "The press has pretensions of being a crusader but is more often a preserver of the status quo."
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2025
The big house on the corner was sadder and older than I had remembered, and looked absurd, with its architectural eccentricities, its pretensions to French style, its facade covered with diseased ivy.
From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
