pretext

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

They were going to court for hearings they had to attend, then getting scooped up under a pretext that itself turned out to be a lie.

From Slate • Mar. 27, 2026

“They use it as a pretext, even in regions where there is no such danger.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 14, 2026

"To sentence my 69-year-old father under the pretext that his actions lowered the 'likelihood' of my return to stand trial is not justice; it is a judicial farce," she said.

From Barron's • Feb. 26, 2026

“It’s all pretext and obfuscation when the real agenda is rejecting conventional science and serving a predetermined anti-vaccine agenda,” Richard Hughes IV, a law professor at George Washington University, told The Guardian.

From Salon • Feb. 13, 2026

The heat and the manual work had even given him a pretext for reverting to shorts and an open shirt in the evenings.

From "1984" by George Orwell