PRETENDER (pretender)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: pretender   

• PRETENDER (noun)
  The noun PRETENDER has 3 senses:

1. a claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title)

2. a person who makes deceitful pretenses

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

  Familiarity information: PRETENDER used as a noun is uncommon.

• PRETENDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Pretender" is a kind of...):

claimant (someone who claims a benefit or right or title)

Derivation:

pretend (put forward a claim and assert right or possession of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who makes deceitful pretenses

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

fake; faker; fraud; imposter; impostor; pretender; pseud; pseudo; role player; sham; shammer

Hypernyms ("pretender" is a kind of...):

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pretender"):

name dropper (someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends)

ringer (a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses)

Derivation:

pretend (make believe with the intent to deceive)

pretend (behave unnaturally or affectedly)

Sense 3

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

dissembler; dissimulator; hypocrite; phoney; phony; pretender

Hypernyms ("pretender" is a kind of...):

beguiler; cheat; cheater; deceiver; slicker; trickster (someone who leads you to believe something that is not true)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pretender"):

charmer; smoothie; smoothy; sweet talker (someone with an assured and ingratiating manner)

Tartufe; Tartuffe (a hypocrite who pretends to religious piety (after the protagonist in a play by Moliere))

whited sepulcher; whited sepulchre (a person who is inwardly evil but outwardly professes to be virtuous)

 Context examples 

In his despondency, he concluded that he had no judgment whatever, that he was hypnotized by what he wrote, and that he was a self-deluded pretender.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)