pretender
/pɹɪˈtɛndəɹ/
pretender noun: one who intends or purposes.
Noun
pretender (plural pretenders)
- One who intends or purposes.
- Pretensor, a pretender, he that purposeth.1591, Percivall, Sp. Dict.
- Pretendente, a pretendent, a pretender, an intender, a meaner.1598, Florio
- One who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something; a claimant, candidate, or aspirant; now, one who makes baseless pretensions.
- By how straight a Rule […] must that Pretender carry himselfe, who is to saile thorow the sea of this world, hoping for a fortune from another mans hand?1622, Mabbe, Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf 1.214
- […]; to consider the direct purposes of God against his enemies, rather than the sinister supplantations of pretenders to places in court; […]a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, “Sermon XXX”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D., […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 8
- One who aspires to the hand of a woman in marriage; a suitor, a wooer.
- He, of the two pretenders, that best loves me.1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen: […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 1
- An Earles daughter, […] whose mother not allowing him to come as a pretender shee made apointmentt with him and mett him att her cousin’s howse.ante 1699, Lady Halkett, Autobiog. 17 (Camden)
- A claimant to a throne or the office of a ruler; originally in a neutral sense, but now always applied to a claimant who is held to have no just title.
- If inteſtine Broils allarm the Hive, / (For two Pretenders oft for Empire ſtrive)1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 125
- I Think it necessary to acquaint you, that I have received Advices this Morning from Ostend, that the French Fleet sailed from Dunkirk, Tuesday at three in the Morning, Northward, with the Pretender on board; as also, that Sir George Byng had notice of it the same Day at ten: And he being very much...1708 March 11th, Anne Regina, The Queen’s Speech to both Houses, in The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons, volume IV: 1706–1713, London: Chandler (1742), § iv: “First Parliament of...
- One who pretends or lays claim to something; one who makes a profession, show, or assertion, especially without adequate grounds, falsely, or with intent to deceive; a dissembler, deceiver, charlatan, hypocrite.
- A pretender / To the art, I truely honor, and ſubſcribe / To your maieſties opinion.1631 (first performance), Philip Massinger, The Emperour of the East. A Tragæ-comœdie. […], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Iohn Waterson, published 1632, →OCLC, Act II, scene i
- Make it a feast, and perfit your great injustice / In the surrendringe up this false pretender / To the correction of the law, […]1631 May 17 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Philip Massinger, Believe as You List: A Tragedy (Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages. […]; XXVII), London...
- A person who professes beliefs and opinions that they do not hold.
- Synonyms:
- dissembler, flip-flopper, hypocrite, phony, bamboozler, bouncer, bullshitter, cheat, cheater, cogger
Verb
pretender (third-person singular simple present pretenders, present participle pretendering, simple past and past participle pretendered)
- To tender (a bid, etc.) in advance.
- The LPM coordinates closely with the EPM and the case attorney throughout the pretendering period. The Licensing Assistant (LA) in the assigned project branch requests that a project number be assigned by the Records Facilities[…]1979, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 1980: Hearings Before a Subcommittee...
- Long-term delivery items were pretendered and purchased by the Government of the Northwest Territories in early 1975. Pretendered items included the polyethylene pipe and Victaulic couplings, a portable gasoline engine driven pump[…]1979, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, volume 6
pretender meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
pretender in Tamil
- பகடி, குறவன், போலியாள், கையாளி, விடம்பன், சாகசிகன்
pretender in Urdu
- a pretender, pretentious man; a boaster
- مدعی mudda'ī
pretender in Bengali
- ভানকারী, মিথ্যা দাবিদার
pretender in Malayalam
- claimant, aspirant
- കപടനാട്യക്കാരൻ, നാട്യക്കാരൻ, സ്ഥാനകാംക്ഷി, സിംഹാസനാവകാശവാദി, കൃത്രിമവേഷധാരി, രാജ്യാഭിലാഷമുന്നയിക്കുന്നയാൾ
More languagesFewer languages
- pretender in Kannada
- ಸುಳ್ಳು ಹಕ್ಕುದಾರ, ನಿರಾಧಾರವಾದ ಹಕ್ಕು ಹೂಡುವವ, ಸೋಗಾಳಿ, ಸೋಗುಹಾಕುವವ
Examples of pretender in a sentence
- Every one is a pretender and a runner; but few carry the prize.1646, H. Lawrence, Comm. Angells 116
- The issue of the eldest son excludes all other pretenders, as the son himself (if living) would have done.1766, William Blackstone, chapter 14, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book II (Of the Rights of Things), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […]...
- A candidate for a school at Brewood in Staffordshire; to which, I think, there are seventeen pretenders.1780 May 25th, Johnson, Let. to Mrs. Thrale
- I would sooner gain five thousand pounds by restoring you to your rights, than fifty thousand in establishing any of these pretenders in their base assumptions.1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter VII, in Sybil; or The Two Nations. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 238:
Synonyms of pretender
24 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of pretender
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | pretenders |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pretenders |
| present participle | pretendering |
| past participle | pretendered |
| past | pretendered |
Origin of pretender
From pretend + -er.
From pre- + tender.
Words formed from pretender
- Old Pretender
- pretenderism
- pretendership
- pretendress
- public pretender
- Young Pretender
Words that rhyme with pretender
- render
- tender
- bender
- surrender
- transgender
- gender
- defender
- descender
- engender
- ascender
- fender
- attender
24 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about pretender
- What does pretender mean?
- Pretender means one who intends or purposes.
- What is pretender in Tamil?
- Pretender in Tamil is பகடி, குறவன், போலியாள். See Pretender meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use pretender in a sentence?
- Every one is a pretender and a runner; but few carry the prize.
- What part of speech is pretender?
- Pretender can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce pretender?
- Pretender is pronounced /pɹɪˈtɛndəɹ/.
- What is the plural of pretender?
- The plural of pretender is pretenders.
Words near pretender in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pretender (page history and authors); pretender (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); مدعی (Urdu) (page history and authors); pretender (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pretender (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); pretender (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-pretender.wav.
Cite this entry: “pretender.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pretender. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.