false pretension

The detection, it is true, is not so easy, because the objects are not so nigh at hand to compare, and therefore there is more room both for false pretension and for self-deceit.

From Table Talk Essays on Men and Manners by William Hazlitt

She said this, therefore, only to tease her aunt by the false pretension that the secret had been confided to her.

From History of King Charles the Second of England by Jacob Abbott

Now, any British Mason will see at a glance that all this is a false pretension.

From Secret Societies And Subversive Movements by Nesta H. Webster

But at that critical period of their daughter's life, they were ignorant of human nature, and entirely unskilled in the means of detecting false pretension, or discovering true merit.

From The Lights and Shadows of Real Life by T. S. (Timothy Shay) Arthur

He was willing to do it,—but was not willing that there should be any soft-worded, high-toned false pretension.

From The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope