pretense

Any pretense at acceptance has long been discarded.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026

It was like a professional wrestling rivalry in which everyone cheers for either the hero or the heel, only there was no pretense to this one.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 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

That’s the pretense that brought Anthea Hartig, an historian and the director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, before a House committee on Tuesday.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2026

She scorned pretense, and she believed in plain speaking.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

States have resorted to Rube Goldberg-like schemes to obtain drugs from abroad, sometimes under false pretenses, or have used drugs that are expired or improperly stored.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 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

Her mom had never put up any pretenses about being overly religious.

From "The Parker Inheritance" by Varian Johnson