pre·tend·er

(prĭ-tĕn′dər)

1. One who simulates, pretends, or alleges falsely; a hypocrite or dissembler.

2. One who sets forth a claim, especially a claimant to a throne.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

pretender

(prɪˈtɛndə)

1. a person who pretends or makes false allegations

2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a person who mounts a claim, as to a throne or title

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

pre•tend•er

(prɪˈtɛn dər)

n.

1. a person who pretends, esp. for a dishonest purpose.

2. an aspirant or claimant (often fol. by to): a pretender to the throne.

3. a person who makes unjustified or false claims.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Pretender - a claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title) claimant - someone who claims a benefit or right or title; "claimants of unemployment compensation"; "he was a claimant to the throne"
	2.	pretender - a person who makes deceitful pretenses imposter, impostor, pseud, pseudo, role player, faker, fraud, fake, sham, shammer beguiler, cheater, deceiver, trickster, slicker, cheat - someone who leads you to believe something that is not true name dropper - someone who pretends that famous people are his/her friends ringer - a contestant entered in a competition under false pretenses
	3.	pretender - 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 dissembler, dissimulator, hypocrite, phoney, phony beguiler, cheater, deceiver, trickster, slicker, cheat - someone who leads you to believe something that is not true 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

pretender

noun claimant, claimer, aspirant the Comte de Paris, pretender to the French throne

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

pretender

noun

1. One who fakes:

charlatan, fake, faker, fraud, humbug, impostor, mountebank, phony, quack.

2. One who sets forth a claim to a royal title:

claimant, claimer.

Translations

Prätendent

pretendente

pretender

[prɪˈtendəʳ] N → pretendiente mf
pretender to the throne → pretendiente mf al trono
the Young Pretender → el joven Pretendiente

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

pretender

[prɪˈtɛndə^r] n → prétendant(e) m/f
pretender to sth → prétendant à qch

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

pretender

n (to throne) → Prätendent(in) m(f) (→ to auf +acc)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

pretender

[prɪˈtɛndəʳ] n (to the throne) → pretendente m/f

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

It is perhaps the last instance of a Pretender's adventure for a Crown that History will have to record with the usual grave moral disapproval tinged by a shamefaced regret for the departing romance.

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But it is necessary to know well how to disguise this characteristic, and to be a great pretender and dissembler; and men are so simple, and so subject to present necessities, that he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.

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He heard the Highland battle-cry and the clash of steel on steel, for fighting came near his home, and his own people joined the standard of the Pretender. Little James never forgot these things, and long afterwards, when he grew to be a man and wrote poetry, it was full of the sounds of battle, full, too, of love for mountain and glen and their rolling mists.

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In her handling a ship will not put up with a mere pretender, as, for instance, the public will do with Mr.

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On the death of Anne in 1714 Bolingbroke, with other Tories, was intriguing for a second restoration of the Stuarts in the person of the son of James II (the 'Old Pretender').

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Engaging, heart and soul, in his pursuits of sowing, planting, and gathering, Van Baerle, caressed by the whole fraternity of tulip-growers in Europe, entertained nor the least suspicion that there was at his very door a pretender whose throne he had usurped.

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This man is a pretender, and ignorant, else he had known that that weapon can be used in but eight bouts only, and then it vanisheth away to its home under the sea."

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But, it was only the pleasanter to turn to Biddy and to Joe, whose great forbearance shone more brightly than before, if that could be, contrasted with this brazen pretender. I went towards them slowly, for my limbs were weak, but with a sense of increasing relief as I drew nearer to them, and a sense of leaving arrogance and untruthfulness further and further behind.

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Nor should I like to be obliged myself, to send to your prince his million left here by you, for then it would be said, and with some reason, that I paid the Pretender to enable him to make war against the parliament.

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The whole extent of his fault was revealed to him at simple sight of the pretender. All that passed in the mind of Fouquet was lost upon the persons present.

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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.

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This babel of inventors and pretenders amazed Bell and disconcerted his backers.

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