PRETENSE in a Sentence

Learn PRETENSE from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

50 example sentences for PRETENSE, such as:

1. She made a pretense of busying herself with unpacking.
2. The play mocks the pretensions of the new middle class.
3. The articles lampoon the pretensions of some movie moguls.
4. He has/makes no pretensions to being an expert on the subject.
5. He had retired at one o'clock under the pretense of being indisposed.

Free Online Vocabulary Test
K12, SAT, GRE, IELTS, TOEFL
 Input your word:
Want to search a word in classic works?
Search Classic Quotes
 Meanings and Examples of PRETENSE
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
pretense
 n.  act of giving a false appearance; imaginative intellectual play
Classic Sentence: (42 in 3 pages)
1  Thus appealed to, Jeems gave up further pretense of not having overheard the conversation and furrowed his black brow.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER I
2  Every girl with any pretense to accomplishments had sung or played the piano, and the tableaux vivants had been greeted with flattering applause.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XII
3  In the weeks that followed her first party, Scarlett was hard put to keep up her pretense of supreme indifference to public opinion.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XLIX
4  Sometimes, he was a very comfortable person to live with, for all his unfortunate habit of not permitting anyone in his presence to act a lie, palm off a pretense or indulge in bombast.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER L
5  She made a pretense of busying herself with unpacking.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IV
6  When she spied Mrs. McGanum or Mrs. Dyer ahead she crossed over with an elaborate pretense of looking at a billboard.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER IX
7  The snow, stretching without break from streets to devouring prairie beyond, wiped out the town's pretense of being a shelter.
Main Street By Sinclair Lewis
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER X
8  Now a good many of the guests have finished, and, since there is no pretense of ceremony, the banquet begins to break up.
The Jungle By Upton Sinclair
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 1
9  If d'Artagnan forgets his host, or appears to forget him, under the pretense of not knowing where he has been carried, we will not forget him, and we know where he is.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 11 IN WHICH THE PLOT THICKENS
10  Then he placed a sentinel at each door, with an order to admit nobody upon any pretense but his VALET DE CHAMBRE, Patrick.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 21 THE COUNTESS DE WINTER
11  He had retired at one o'clock under the pretense of being indisposed.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 23 THE RENDEZVOUS
12  Buckingham could not under any pretense be admitted into France as an ambassador; he wished to enter it as a conqueror.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 41 THE SEIGE OF LA ROCHELLE
13  I became in an instant as much of a pretense as the rest of the bewitched pilgrims.
Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad
Context  Highlight   In I
14  They were intruders whose knowledge of life was to me an irritating pretense, because I felt so sure they could not possibly know the things I knew.
Heart of Darkness By Joseph Conrad
Context  Highlight   In III
15  The princess, picking up her dress, was taking her seat in the dark carriage, her husband was adjusting his saber; Prince Hippolyte, under pretense of helping, was in everyone's way.
War and Peace 1 By Leo Tolstoy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER VI
Example Sentence:
1  In this essay, the author examines the theme of pretense in Hamlet , or the contrast between illusion and reality.
2  The house was booked under a pretense for a small group, before being published on Instagram as the venue for a Halloween party.
3  I strongly believe that pretension is the root of all human suffering.
4  Her wide-eyed innocence soon exposes the pretensions of the art world.
5  He has/makes no pretensions to being an expert on the subject.
6  The play mocks the pretensions of the new middle class.
7  The city has unrealistic pretensions to world-class status.
8  The articles lampoon the pretensions of some movie moguls.