Pretend and feign both deal with attempting to create a false appearance. However, feign suggests a degree more sophistication in the art of deception. To feign interest in something is to represent your level of interest fictitiously. Unlike pretend, feign is not used to talk about playful make believe where all parties are privy to the pretense. On the contrary, feign is used in situations where one party aims to convince another of something untrue, as an emotional state or physical condition.

The adjective pensive means “dreamily or wistfully thoughtful.” Someone who is in a pensive mood may be given to contemplation or reflection. While thoughtfulness is central to the meaning of pensive, the word itself suggests more feeling than the adjective thoughtful—and it is not used to convey consideration for others in the same way that thoughtful sometimes is. The attention of someone who is pensive is directed inward rather than outward.

Something that is unclear is not clear or definite. Another way to describe something unclear is to call it ambiguous; however, true to form, the meaning of ambiguous is not entirely straightforward! Ambiguous sometimes means obscure or indistinct, as in the case of a shape off in the distance, the outline of which is hard to discern. But when describing a statement, act, or attitude—or even a situation or relationship—ambiguous suggests a lack of clarity due to several meanings or possible interpretations.