Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use pretext in a sentence

24 example sentences · noun, verb

Pretext means a false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense. Example: “The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.”

Examples of pretext by meaning

nounA false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.

  • The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.
  • The smallest incidents were to serve as pretexts for demonstrations of force and for demands for indemnities and reparations which increased China's subjection.1996, Jacques Gernet, translated by J. R. Foster and Charles Hartman, A History of Chinese Civilization, 2nd edition, Cambridge University...
  • When that metaphor proves untenable, he switches to insisting that women are like beer but that’s mainly as a pretext to drink until he passes out in a father-son bonding haze.2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “The Simpsons (Classic): ‘New Kid on the Block’ [season 4, episode 8; originally aired 12 November 1992]”, in...

verbTo 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.
  • Some remained nominally in the resistance but in practice delayed at their bases, pretexting a lack of ammunition for their uncertain inertia.1970 August 12 [1969 January 15], John Womack, Jr., Zapata and the Mexican Revolution, New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, →ISBN...

More sentences with pretext

  • We believe that Facebook is using privacy as a pretext to squelch research that it considers inconvenient.2021 August 10, Laura Edelson, Damon McCoy, “We Research Misinformation on Facebook. It Just Disabled Our Accounts.”, in The New York…. From the entry squelch
  • Pretexting involves developing the role the social engineer will play for the attack on the company.2010, Christopher Hadnagy, Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking, John Wiley, unpaginated page. From the entry social engineer
  • They fulfilled this desire by becoming rōnin under the false pretext of “loyalty.”2005, Romulus Hillsborough [pseudonym; Jeff Cohen], “Newly Selected Corps”, in Shinsengumi: The Shōgun’s Last Samurai Corps, North…. From the entry rōnin
  • Madness, even under the pretext of despair, is never a force that can regenerate the world.September 12, 2001: Jean-Marie Colombani, "Today, We Are All Americans", Le Monde. From the entry today we are all
  • “Most remarkable,” murmured Tarzan, cudgeling his brain for some pretext upon which to turn the subject.1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 102. From the entry cudgel
  • They were “crisis actors” hired to promote the story as a pretext to impose tighter gun restrictions, the theory goes.2016 June 28, Christopher Mele, “After Orlando Shooting, ‘False Flag’ and ‘Crisis Actor’ Conspiracy Theories Surface”, in The New York…. From the entry crisis actor
  • Cat's wandered down the garden on the pretext of using the pool so she takes her towel and cozzie.2010, Barbara Trapido, Sex and Stravinsky, unnumbered page. From the entry cozzie
  • The injunction also became a pretext for yet another round of vituperative cant from Idaho’s reactionary congressional delegation.2008 August 16, Jeffrey St. Clair, “Last Stand in the Big Woods”, in CounterPunch. From the entry vituperative
  • That malarkey about ‘protecting the Constitution’ was just a pretext.”2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex (2011 reprint), p. 363 (Google preview). From the entry show one's true stripes
  • And then each group began to infight on some pretext.1985, Alixa Naff, Becoming American: the early Arab immigrant experience, page 307. From the entry infight
  • Largely consigned to the hors champ, the skin flick that is being projected seems to function merely as a pretext for cruising.2020 fall, Jules O’Dwyer, “Coming and Going: Nolot, Barthes, and the Porn Theater”, in Discourse, volume 42, number 3, Detroit, Mich.…. From the entry contronymous
  • In both cases, the seeming downfall of 'England' as the hegemonic power was given as the pretext for a new transcolonial model of the Empire.2006, Kaori Nagai, Empire of Analogies: Kipling, India and Ireland. From the entry transcolonial
  • I would have never come here, under the pretext of academic freedom, if I knew this humiliating meeting would ever be necessary.1977 February 5, Cynthia Adams, quotee, “Clark University Gays Block Ouster Attempt”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 32, page 4. From the entry validify
  • Increasingly unpopular because of his police-state methods, Nkrumah used the queen’s visit as a pretext to jail dozens of his political opponents as would-be reginacides.1961 November 24, “His High Dedication and Her Majesty”, in Life, volume 51, number 21, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, page 45, column 1. From the entry reginacide
  • We should all be ashamed of ourselves for using Leila Parreira’s grave illness, and her husband’s departure to be with her, as a pretext for a ridiculously futile blamestorm.2008 April 24, Carlos Amato, “Enough blamestorming!”, in The Times (Johannesburg). From the entry blamestorm
  • They branded the 'workers opposition' as an anarcho-syndicalist deviation, and its spokesmen were eliminated from party work on various pretexts, though they were not imprisoned or shot.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford…. From the entry anarcho-syndicalist
  • Some stagger about in each other's arms, whispering maudlin words—others start quarrels upon the slightest pretext, and come to blows and have to be pulled apart.1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter I, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 26 February 1906, →OCLC. From the entry come to blows
  • It would give a serious countersense to sing it with a great cry of joy, and to give it "éclat" under the pretext that "it is Easter".c. 1900, Lura F. Heckenlively, The Fundamentals of Gregorian Chant, page 247. From the entry countersense
  • It has had a deplorable effect in furnishing pretexts for the stifling of all independent philosophical thought and in establishing the party's dictatorship over science and culture in every sphere.1978 [1976], Leszek Kołakowski, translated by P[aul] S[teven] Falla, Main Currents of Marxism, volume II: The Golden Age, Oxford…. From the entry dictatorship

Meaning of pretext

  1. noun A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.
  2. verb To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.

Full definition of pretext

Questions about pretext in a sentence

How do you use pretext in a sentence?
Pretext is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint.”
What is a short sentence with pretext?
“And then each group began to infight on some pretext.”
What does pretext mean?
Pretext means a false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pretext (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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