MAKE-BELIEVE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does make-believe mean? 

• MAKE-BELIEVE (noun)
  The noun MAKE-BELIEVE has 2 senses:

1. imaginative intellectual play

2. the enactment of a pretense

  Familiarity information: MAKE-BELIEVE used as a noun is rare.

• MAKE-BELIEVE (adjective)
  The adjective MAKE-BELIEVE has 1 sense:

1. imagined as in a play

  Familiarity information: MAKE-BELIEVE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• MAKE-BELIEVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Imaginative intellectual play

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

make-believe; pretence; pretense

Hypernyms ("make-believe" is a kind of...):

imagery; imagination; imaging; mental imagery (the ability to form mental images of things or events)

Derivation:

make-believe (imagined as in a play)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The enactment of a pretense

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

make-believe; pretend

Context example:

it was just pretend

Hypernyms ("make-believe" is a kind of...):

feigning; pretence; pretending; pretense; simulation (the act of giving a false appearance)

Derivation:

make believe (represent fictitiously, as in a play, or pretend to be or act like)

make-believe (imagined as in a play)

• MAKE-BELIEVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Imagined as in a play

Synonyms:

make-believe; pretend

Context example:

dangling their legs in the water to catch pretend fish

Similar:

unreal (lacking in reality or substance or genuineness; not corresponding to acknowledged facts or criteria)

Derivation:

make-believe (the enactment of a pretense)

make-believe (imaginative intellectual play)

 Context examples 

But though Mrs. Ferrars DID come to see them, and always treated them with the make-believe of decent affection, they were never insulted by her real favour and preference.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Then, I was stuck on a pole in a cornfield, where I could make-believe scare the crows, at any rate.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)