Word.ws English Dictionary

make believe

make believe verb: to pretend or imagine. Also the alternative form of make-believe.

Verb

make believe (third-person singular simple present makes believe, present participle making believe, simple past and past participle made believe)

  1. (childish, idiomatic) To pretend or imagine.
    • Let's make believe that we are explorers.
    • Only make believe I love you, / Only make believe that you love me. / Others find peace of mind in pretending, / Couldn’t you? / Couldn’t I? / Couldn’t we? / Make believe our lips are blending / In a phantom kiss, or two, or three. / Might as well make believe I love you, / For to tell the truth I...1927, Oscar Hammerstein II, Show Boat
    Synonyms:
    make pretend

Adjective

make believe (comparative more make believe, superlative most make believe)

  1. Imaginary; conjured in someone's imagination, especially that of a child.

Also used as

make believe is also the alternative form of make-believe.

Synonyms of make believe

Forms of make believe

Verb
third-person singular presentmakes believe
present participlemaking believe
past participlemade believe
pastmade believe
Noun
pluralmake believes
Adjective
comparativemore make believe
superlativemost make believe

Questions about make believe

What does make believe mean?
Make believe means to pretend or imagine.
What part of speech is make believe?
Make believe can be a verb or an adjective.
What is the past tense of make believe?
The past tense of make believe is made believe.

Words near make believe in the dictionary

  1. make away with
  2. make baby Jesus cry
  3. make bank
  4. make beautiful music together
  5. make belief
  6. make believe
  7. make believes
  8. make biscuits
  9. make bold
  10. make bones about
  11. make book

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: make believe (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: En-au-make believe.ogg.

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