Adjacent Words

Pretender definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PRETEND'ER, n. One who makes a show of something not real; one who lays claim to any thing.
1. In English history, the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who lays claim to the crown of Great Britain, but is excluded by law.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title)
2: a person who makes deceitful pretenses [syn: imposter, impostor, pretender, fake, faker, fraud, sham, shammer, pseudo, pseud, role player]
3: a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives [syn: hypocrite, dissembler, dissimulator, phony, phoney, pretender]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 1609 one that pretends: as a. one who lays claim to something; specifically a claimant to a throne who is held to have no just title b. one who makes a false or hypocritical show

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 a person who claims a throne or title etc. 2 a person who pretends.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pretender Pre*tend"er, n. 1. One who lays claim, or asserts a title (to something); a claimant. Specifically, The pretender (Eng. Hist.), the son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great Britain, from which the house was excluded by law. It is the shallow, unimproved intellects that are the confident pretenders to certainty. --Glanvill. 2. One who pretends, simulates, or feigns.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pretenders) A pretender to a position is someone who claims the right to that position, and whose claim is disputed by others. ...the Comte de Paris, pretender to the French throne. N-COUNT: usu N to n, adj N

Moby Thesaurus

actor, affecter, arrogator, aspirant, blagueur, bluff, bluffer, candidate, charlatan, claimant, deceiver, fake, faker, fourflusher, fraud, hollow man, humbug, impersonator, impostor, malingerer, man of straw, mannerist, mountebank, paper tiger, performer, phony, playactor, poser, poseur, quack, quacksalver, quackster, ringer, rival, saltimbanco, seeker, sham, shammer, straw man, suitor, usurper