When you operate under a pretense, you're not being honest. You're pretending. If you say you're going to a party because you’re eager to see your friend, but really you're just interested in the birthday cake, you’re acting on pretense.
Noun
the act of giving a false appearance; "his conformity was only pretending"
Noun
an artful or simulated semblance; "under the guise of friendship he betrayed them"
Noun
a false or unsupportable quality
Noun
imaginative intellectual play
Noun
pretending with intention to deceive
n.
Alt. of Pretence
Usage Examples
To copy beauty forfeits all pretense to fame to copy faults is want of sense.
Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.
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Other Usage ExamplesYou must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind.
It seems to me that socialists today can preserve their position in academic economics merely by the pretense that the differences are entirely moral questions about which science cannot decide.
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