pretense

When I observed the LAB dancers in the studio as they prepared for their upcoming program, there were no tiaras or tutus, no pretense of easy perfection.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

The movie also does for food something like what “Sideways” did for wine, though it opposes culinary pretense with its depiction of modest, unheralded excellence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026

It is supplying the constitutional context and stripping away the pretense courts so often cling to when they want to stay out of the fray.

From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026

Rubio added that the Nicaraguan leader and his wife, Rosario Murillo, whom Ortega named as his "co-president" in February 2025, had "abandoned even the pretense of popular consent".

From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026

The only result was that the horse broke into a kind of pretense of a trot for five or six paces and then subsided into a walk again.

From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis

Barofsky said Fain declared under false pretenses that Boyer had been derelict in his duties.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026

Both suspects were arrested following the search and now face multiple felony charges, including grand theft, receiving stolen property and theft by false pretenses, according to authorities.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026

Meanwhile, Lori, a young Black woman hired under false pretenses as an assistant, stares mutely.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 9, 2026

“In cases where people buy properties sight unseen, it would be a stronger case that they made that contract under misleading pretenses and for it to be null and void,” Leben said.

From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2025

“I suppose we all come under false pretenses one way or another, don’t we? It was best not to tell me. I probably wouldn’t have let you in.”

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline