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pretension

nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,362 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: pretensions

A pretension is a claim to importance that is not deserved. Social pretensions, without pretension, pretensions to grandeur.

The plural means airs and is nearly always mocking; the singular can be neutral, meaning a claim laid to something. Without pretension is high praise. Note pretentious, which is always an insult; and that the Latin means a stretching forward, from tendere, to stretch.

Definitions of pretension

  1. 1nounpretensionA claim to importance that is not deserved.C1

    “The restaurant had pretensions to being the best in town, but the food was ordinary.”

pretension is an unearned claim.

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin pretensio comes from praetendere, to stretch forward or claim — prae plus tendere. Tend, extend and pretend come from the same stretching.

  1. Medieval Latin

    prētēnsiō

  2. Middle English

    pretencioun

  3. English, today

    pretension

From Middle English pretencioun, pretensioun, from Medieval Latin prētēnsiō.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

pretension in the wild

  • Hubris, arrogance, and pretension are related to the need for victory (even if it does not always mean winning) instead of reconciliation, which "friendly" groups might promote.

    Hubris

  • In many areas, the term now has an air of pretension, and may be used in a partly ironic sense.

    Connoisseur

  • The central message is that people from Norrland (who naturally drink Norrlands Guld) are generally more laid back and free from pretension.

    Norrlands Guld

  • Although the project has the pretension of being expanded to other Brazilian states, nowadays it only operates in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Bahia.

    SESI Mathematics

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.