Word.ws English Dictionary

make-believe

/ˈmeɪk bəˌliːv/

make-believe noun: the quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not.

Noun

make-believe (countable and uncountable, plural make-believes)

  1. (childish, sometimes, uncountable) The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not.
    • Come on, come on, I go up and down / I like this curious feeling / I know, I see, it's like make believe / Cover your ears so you can hear what I'm saying1985, “The Lady Don't Mind”, in Little Creatures, performed by Talking Heads
  2. (childish, sometimes, uncountable) The condition of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are.
  3. (childish, countable, sometimes) Something imaginary.
    • ‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Marjorie Lindon, to even think such nonsense. Are you all nerves and morbid imaginings,—you who have prided yourself on being so strong-minded! A pretty sort you are to do battle for anyone.—Why, they’re only make-believes!’1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle

Adjective

make-believe

  1. (childish, sometimes) Imaginary; not real; pretend.
    • He called himself Lord So-and-So, even had his family crest on the wall, but it was all totally make-believe.

make-believe meaning in Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

make-believe in Tamil

பாசாங்கு, போலி நடிப்பு, பாசாங்கு செய், நடி, நம்பும்படி நடி

make-believe in Bengali

কাল্পনিক কিছু, কাল্পনিক, বাস্তব নয়, ভান

make-believe in Malayalam

നടിപ്പ്, കാപട്യം, വ്യാജം, വേഷം

make-believe in Kannada

ಮೋಸ, ಕಪಟ, ಕೃತ್ರಿಮ, ನಟನೆ, ತೋರ್ಕೆ, ಸೋಗು

Forms of make-believe

pluralmake-believes
alternative formmakebelieve
alternative formmake believe

Origin of make-believe

Deverbal from make believe.

Questions about make-believe

What does make-believe mean?
Make-believe means the quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not.
What is make-believe in Tamil?
Make-believe in Tamil is பாசாங்கு, போலி நடிப்பு, பாசாங்கு செய். See Make-believe meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is make-believe?
Make-believe can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce make-believe?
Make-believe is pronounced /ˈmeɪk bəˌliːv/.
What is the plural of make-believe?
The plural of make-believe is make-believes.

Words near make-believe in the dictionary

  1. make-ahead
  2. make-aheads
  3. make-and-break
  4. make-and-breaks
  5. make-before-break
  6. make-believe
  7. make-believes
  8. make-debate
  9. make-debates
  10. make-do
  11. make-dos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make-believe (page history and authors); make-believe (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); make-believe (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); make-believe (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); make-believe (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-make-believe.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-make-believe.wav.

Cite this entry: “make-believe.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/make-believe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.