Word.ws English Dictionary

pretex

pretex is the obsolete spelling of pretext.

Meaning of pretext

Verb

pretext (third-person singular simple present pretexts, present participle pretexting, simple past and past participle pretexted)

  1. To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.
    • The spy obtained his phone records using possibly-illegal pretexting methods.
    Synonyms:
    blag

See all 2 meanings of pretext

Forms of pretex

third-person singular presentpretexes
present participlepretexing
past participlepretexed
pastpretexed

Origin of pretex

From Latin praetexere. See pretext.

Questions about pretex

What is pretex the obsolete spelling of?
Pretex is the obsolete spelling of pretext.

Words near pretex in the dictionary

  1. pretester
  2. pretesters
  3. pretesticular
  4. pretesting
  5. pretests
  6. pretex
  7. pretexed
  8. pretexes
  9. pretexing
  10. pretext
  11. pretexted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pretex (page history and authors); pretext (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.

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