Lexic.us

Definition of Pretension

1. Noun. A false or unsupportable quality.

2. Noun. The advancing of a claim. "The town still puts forward pretensions as a famous resort"

3. Noun. The quality of being pretentious (behaving or speaking in such a manner as to create a false appearance of great importance or worth).

Definition of Pretension

1. n. The act of pretending, or laying claim; the act of asserting right or title.

Definition of Pretension

1. Noun. A claim or aspiration to a particular status or quality. ¹

2. Noun. Pretentiousness. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Pretension

1. [v -ED, -ING, -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Pretension

pretendence pretendences pretender pretenders pretendership pretenderships pretendeth pretending pretendingly pretends

pretense pretensed pretenseful pretenseless pretenses pretension (current term) pretensioned pretensioning pretensionless pretensions

pretentative pretention pretentions pretentious pretentiously pretentiousness pretentiousnesses preter- preter-human preterhuman

Literary usage of Pretension

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. The Invasion of the Crimea: Its Origin and an Account of Its Progress Down by Alexander William Kinglake (1868)
"From that day, their sup- rawn' I'TI f tension of posed pretension to be, ... was visibly a pretension withdrawn ; exerted by and the seaward approaches of ..."

2. Chronological History of the West Indies by Thomas Southey (1827)
"... and its government henceforward to be that of justice. who, intoxicated with a foolish pride, and interested slaves of a guilty pretension, are blinded ..."

3. United States Supreme Court Reports by Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, United States Supreme Court (1912)
"... to the foreign volunteers, did not confer a title to any part of the public de- main, nor perfect any incipient pretension into a vested interest. ..."

4. The Living Age by Making of America Project, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell (1846)
"I have not yet mentioned the church, which has little pretension to architectural beauty, being, in truth, a very plain, ill-proportioned structure, ..."

5. Rural Rides in the Counties of Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Hants, Berks, Oxford by William Cobbett (1908)
"In this part of my work there is no pretension to any critical study of Cobbett's life and writings. This has been done already so ably by authors of note ..."

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