The act of giving a false appearance.

synonyms: feigning, pretence, pretending, simulation.

Roget 882: ostentation, display, show, flourish, parade, etalage [Fr.], pomp, array, state, solemnity; dash, splash, splurge, glitter, strut, pomposity; pretense, pretensions; showing off; fuss.    magnificence, splendor; coup d'oeil [Fr.]; grand doings.    coup de theatre; stage effect, stage trick; claptrap; mise en scene [Fr.]; tour de force; chic.    demonstration, flying colors; tomfoolery; flourish of trumpets etc. (celebration) 883; pageant, pageantry; spectacle, exhibition, exposition, procession; turn out, set out; grand function; f=ete, gala, field day, review, march past, promenade, insubstantial pageant.    dress; court dress, full dress, evening dress, ball dress, fancy dress; tailoring, millinery, man millinery, frippery, foppery, equipage.    ceremony, ceremonial; ritual; form, formality; etiquette; puncto [Lat.], punctilio, punctiliousness; starched stateliness, stateliness.    mummery, solemn mockery, mouth honor.    attitudinarian^†; fop etc. 854.    ... show more

Roget 544: falsehood, falseness; falsity, falsification; deception etc. 545; untruth etc. 546; guile; lying etc. 454; untruth etc. 546; guile; lying etc. v.. misrepresentation; mendacity, perjury, false swearing; forgery, invention, fabrication; subreption^†; covin^†.    perversion of truth, suppression of truth; suppressio veri [Lat.]; perversion, distortion, false coloring; exaggeration etc. 549; prevarication, equivocation, shuffling, fencing, evasion, fraud; suggestio falsi etc. (lie) 546 [Lat.]; mystification etc. (concealment) 528; simulation etc. (imitation) 19; dissimulation, dissembling; deceit; blague^†.    sham; pretense, pretending, malingering.    lip homage, lip service; mouth honor; hollowness; mere show, mere outside; duplicity, double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant, humbug; jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, organized hypocrisy;" crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness^†, quackery; charlatanism^†, charlatanry; gammon; bun-kum^†, bumcombe, flam; bam [Slang], flimflam, cajolery, flattery; Judas kiss; perfidy etc. (bad faith) 940; il volto sciolto i pensieri stretti [It].    unfairness etc. (dishonesty) 940; artfulness etc. (cunning) 702; misstatement etc. (error) 495.    ... show more

Roget 884: boasting etc. v.; boast, vaunt, crake^†; pretense, pretensions; puff, puffery; flourish, fanfaronade^†; gasconade; blague^†, bluff, gas [Slang]; highfalutin, highfaluting^†; hot air, spread-eagleism [U.S.]; brag, braggardism^†; bravado, bunkum, buncombe; jactitation^†, jactancy^†; bounce; venditation^†, vaporing, rodomontade, bombast, fine talking, tall talk, magniloquence, teratology^†, heroics; Chauvinism; exaggeration etc. 549.    vanity etc. 880; vox et praeterea nihil [Lat.]; much cry and little wool, brutum fulmen [Lat.].    exultation; gloriation^†, glorification; flourish of trumpets; triumph etc. 883.    boaster; braggart, braggadocio; Gascon [Fr.], fanfaron^†, pretender, soi-disant [Fr.]; blower [U.S.], bluffer, Foxy Quiller^†; blusterer etc. 887; charlatan, jack-pudding, trumpeter; puppy etc. (fop) 854.    ... show more

Polish: symulanctwo, pozoracja, pozoranctwo, symulacja

Pretending with intention to deceive.

synonyms: dissembling, feigning, pretence.

Imaginative intellectual play.

synonyms: make-believe, pretence.

A false or unsupportable quality.

synonyms: pretence, pretension.

Roget 855: affectation; affectedness etc. adj.; acting a part etc. v.; pretense etc. (falsehood) 544, (ostentation) 882; boasting etc. 884.    charlatanism, quackery, shallow profundity; pretension, airs, pedantry, purism, precisianism, euphuism; teratology etc. (altiloquence) 577.    mannerism, simagree, grimace.    conceit, foppery, dandyism, man millinery, coxcombry, puppyism.    stiffness, formality, buckram; prudery, demureness, coquetry, mock modesty, minauderie, sentimentalism; mauvais honte, false shame.    affector, performer, actor; pedant, pedagogue, doctrinaire, purist, euphuist, mannerist; grimacier; lump of affectation, precieuse ridicule [Fr.], bas bleu [Fr.], blue stocking, poetaster; prig; charlatan etc. (deceiver) 548; petit maitre etc. (fop) 854; flatterer etc. 935; coquette, prude, puritan.    ... show more

An artful or simulated semblance.

synonyms: guise, pretence, pretext.

Roget 617: pretext, pretense, pretension, plea^†; allegation, advocation; ostensible motive, ostensible ground, ostensible reason, phony reason; excuse etc. (vindication) 937; subterfuge; color; gloss, guise, cover.    loop hole, starting hole; how to creep out of, salvo, come off; way of escape.    handle, peg to hang on, room locus standi [Lat.]; stalking-horse, cheval de bataille [Fr.], cue.    pretense etc. (untruth) 546; put off, dust thrown in the eyes; blind; moonshine; mere pretext, shallow pretext; lame excuse, lame apology; tub to a whale; false plea, sour grapes; makeshift, shift, white lie; special pleading etc. (sophistry) 477; soft sawder etc. (flattery) 933^†.    ... show more

Roget 546: untruth, falsehood, lie, story, thing that is not, fib, bounce, crammer, taradiddle^†, whopper; jhuth^†.    forgery, fabrication, invention; misstatement, misrepresentation; perversion, falsification, gloss, suggestio falsi [Lat.]; exaggeration etc. 549.    invention, fabrication, fiction; fable, nursery tale; romance etc. (imagination) 515; absurd story, untrue story, false story, trumped up story, trumped up statement; thing devised by the enemy; canard; shave, sell, hum, traveler's tale, Canterbury tale, cock and bull story, fairy tale, fake; claptrap.    press agent's yarn; puff, puffery (exaggeration) 549.    myth, moonshine, bosh, all my eye and Betty Martin, mare's nest, farce.    irony; half truth, white lie, pious fraud; mental reservation etc. (concealment) 528.    pretense, pretext; false plea etc. 617; subterfuge, evasion, shift, shuffle, make-believe; sham etc. (deception) 545.    profession, empty words; Judas kiss etc. (hypocrisy) 544; disguise etc. (mask) 530.    ... show more

Dutch: mom, voorkomen, uiterlijk, dekmantel, pretext, schijngrond, schijnreden, smoes, voorwendsel