pretender C2+ Topic:People & Society US /prɪˈtɛndɚ/ UK /prɪˈtɛndə/ See IPA manual Meanings 1 noun a person who makes a false or disputed claim, especially to a throne The young pretender raised an army to claim the crown. Thesaurus Synonyms 1 noun · a person who makes a false... claimantimpostorusurperdissemblerfraud Word family Derived forms pretendership Related forms pretendpretensepretension Etymology AI details From pretend (from Old French pretendre, from Latin praetendere 'to stretch forth, allege', from prae- 'before' + tendere 'to stretch') + the agentive suffix -er. praetendere Latin tendere Latin View etymology graph -> Topics People & Society Word Formation & Derivatives External links Cambridge Dictionary Wiktionary Google Images # pretender **Type:** Word **Level:** C2+ **Part of speech:** noun **IPA (US):** /prɪˈtɛndɚ/ **IPA (UK):** /prɪˈtɛndə/ ## Meanings 1. a person who makes a false or disputed claim, especially to a throne ## Examples - The young pretender raised an army to claim the crown. ## Synonyms - claimant - impostor - usurper - dissembler - fraud ## Derived Forms - pretendership ## Related Forms - pretend - pretense - pretension ## Roots and Affixes - Root: praetendere - Root: tendere ## Etymology From pretend (from Old French pretendre, from Latin praetendere 'to stretch forth, allege', from prae- 'before' + tendere 'to stretch') + the agentive suffix -er. ## AI Etymology Pretender is from pretend (from Old French pretendre, from Latin praetendere 'to stretch forth, allege', from prae- 'before' + tendere 'to stretch') + the agentive suffix -er. Important recorded forms include praetendere (Latin) and tendere (Latin). Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The modern sense remains close to that composition, with the parts narrowing into a single lexical item. In current use it covers a person who makes a false or disputed claim, especially to a throne. The wider family includes derived forms such as pretendership and related words such as pretend, pretense, and pretension. ## Topics - People & Society - Word Formation & Derivatives markdown