From pretend +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈtɛndəɹ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

pretender (plural pretenders)

1. (obsolete, rare) One who intends or purposes.
   • 1591, Percivall, Sp. Dict.:

     Pretensor, a pretender, he that purposeth.

   • 1598, Florio:

     Pretendente, a pretendent, a pretender, an intender, a meaner.

2. One who puts forth a claim, or who aspires to or aims at something; a claimant, candidate, or aspirant; now, one who makes baseless pretensions.
   • 1622, Mabbe, Aleman’s Guzman d’Alf 1.214:

     By how straight a Rule […] must that Pretender carry himselfe, who is to saile thorow the sea of this world, hoping for a fortune from another mans hand?

   • a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, “Sermon XXX”, in Henry Alford, editor, The Works of John Donne, D.D.,[…], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker,[…], published 1839, →OCLC, page 8:

     […]; to consider the direct purposes of God against his enemies, rather than the sinister supplantations of pretenders to places in court; […]

     The spelling has been modernized.

   • 1646, H. Lawrence, Comm. Angells 116:

     Every one is a pretender and a runner; but few carry the prize.

   • 1766, William Blackstone, chapter 14, in Commentaries on the Laws of England, book II (Of the Rights of Things), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 218:

     The issue of the eldest son excludes all other pretenders, as the son himself (if living) would have done.

   • 1780 May 25th, Johnson, Let. to Mrs. Thrale:

     A candidate for a school at Brewood in Staffordshire; to which, I think, there are seventeen pretenders.

   • 1845, B[enjamin] Disraeli, chapter VII, in Sybil; or The Two Nations.[…], volume II, London: Henry Colburn,[…], →OCLC, book IV, page 238:

     I would sooner gain five thousand pounds by restoring you to your rights, than fifty thousand in establishing any of these pretenders in their base assumptions.

   1. (obsolete) One who aspires to the hand of a woman in marriage; a suitor, a wooer.
      • 1613–1614 (date written), John Fletcher, William Shak[e]speare, The Two Noble Kinsmen:[…], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Waterson; […], published 1634, →OCLC, Act I, scene v, page 1:

        He, of the two pretenders, that best loves me.

      • ante 1699, Lady Halkett, Autobiog. 17, (Camden):

        An Earles daughter, […] whose mother not allowing him to come as a pretender shee made apointmentt with him and mett him att her cousin’s howse.

      • 1728 (1732), Eliza Heywood, Mme. de Gomez’s Belle A. 2.235:

        It is not my design to dispose of Irene to the most noble, but most wealthy of the Pretenders to her Love.

   2. A claimant to a throne or the office of a ruler; originally in a neutral sense, but now always applied to a claimant who is held to have no just title.
      • 1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis.[…], London: […] Jacob Tonson,[…], →OCLC, page 125:

        If inteſtine Broils allarm the Hive, / (For two Pretenders oft for Empire ſtrive)

      • 1708 March 11th, Anne Regina, The Queen’s Speech to both Houses, in The History and Proceedings of the House of Commons, volume IV: 1706–1713, London: Chandler (1742), § iv: “First Parliament of Great Britain”, page 92:

        I Think it necessary to acquaint you, that I have received Advices this Morning from Ostend, that the French Fleet sailed from Dunkirk, Tuesday at three in the Morning, Northward, with the Pretender on board; as also, that Sir George Byng had notice of it the same Day at ten: And he being very much superior to the Enemy both in Number and Strength, I make no question, but, by God’s Blessing, he will soon be able to give a good Account of them.

      • c. 1715, Burnet, Own Time 2.503:

        She [Q. Anne] also fixed a new Designation on the Pretended Prince of Wales, and called him the Pretender; he was so called in a new Set of Addresses […] upon this occasion […] made to the Queen.

      • 1824 June, [Walter Scott], chapter XI, in Redgauntlet,[…], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 238:

        the provost’s enemies at the council-table of the burgh used to observe that he uttered there many a bold harangue against the Pretender, and in favour of King George and government, of which he dared not have pronounced a syllable in his own bedchamber

      • 1827 (1876), Hallam, Const. Hist. 3.16.223:

        The pretender […] had friends in the tory government more sincere probably and zealous than [the earl of] Oxford.

      • 1845, S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref. 3.633:

        Wullenweber […] turned to the nearest protestant pretender, Duke Christian, and offered him his assistance to obtain the crown.

      • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter III, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 442:

        Every province […] had its own Augustus. All these pretenders could not be rightful Emperors.

3. One who pretends or lays claim to something; one who makes a profession, show, or assertion, especially without adequate grounds, falsely, or with intent to deceive; a dissembler, deceiver, charlatan, hypocrite.
   • 1631 (first performance), Philip Massinger, The Emperour of the East. A Tragæ-comœdie.[…], London: […] Thomas Harper, for Iohn Waterson, published 1632, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:

     A pretender / To the art, I truely honor, and ſubſcribe / To your maieſties opinion.

   • 1631 May 17 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Philip Massinger, Believe as You List: A Tragedy (Early English Poetry, Ballads, and Popular Literature of the Middle Ages.[…]; XXVII), London: […] [F]or the Percy Society, by Richards,[…], published 1849, →OCLC, Act II, scene i:

     Make it a feast, and perfit your great injustice / In the surrendringe up this false pretender / To the correction of the law, […]

   • 1651, Thomas Hobbes, chapter 18, in Leviathan, or The Matter, Forme, & Power of a Common-wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civill, London: […] [William Wilson] for Andrew Crooke,[…], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of Common-wealth), page 89:

     But this pretence of Covenant with God, is so evident a lye, even in the pretenders own consciences, that it is not onely an act of an unjust, but also a vile, and unmanly disposition.

   • 1731 (date written), Simon Wagstaff [pseudonym; Jonathan Swift], “An Introduction to the Following Treatise”, in A Complete Collection of Genteel and Ingenious Conversation,[…], London: […] B[enjamin] Motte[…], published 1738, →OCLC, page xlv:

     […]But, I answer; that it is not so easy an Acquirement as a few ignorant Pretenders may imagine.

   • 1782, William Cowper, “The Diverting History of John Gilpin,[…]”, in The Task, a Poem,[…], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], published 1785, →OCLC, page 492:

     That honour has been long The boast of mere pretenders to the name.

   • 1844 January–December, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, “My Pedigree and Family.—Undergo the Influence of the Tender Passion.”, in “The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon, Esq. [The Luck of Barry Lyndon.]”, in Miscellanies: Prose and Verse, volume III, London: Bradbury and Evans,[…], published 1856, →OCLC, page 3:

     I presume that there is no gentleman in Europe that has not heard of the house of Barry of Barryogue, of the kingdom of Ireland, than which a more famous name is not to be found in Gwillim or D’Hozier; and though, as a man of the world, I have learned to despise heartily the claims of some pretenders to high birth who have no more genealogy than the lacquey who cleans my boots, […]

   • 1848 (1850), Mrs. Jameson, Sacr. & Leg. Art 122:

     Simon, a Samaritan, a pretender to divine authority and supernatural powers.

   • 1870, Benjamin Jowett, Charmides, or Temperance, translation of original by Plato:

     Neither will he be able to distinguish the pretender in medicine from the true physician, nor between any other true and false professor of knowledge.

4. A person who professes beliefs and opinions that they do not hold.

   Synonyms: dissembler, flip-flopper, hypocrite, phony; see also Thesaurus:deceiver

From pre- +‎ tender.

pretender (third-person singular simple present pretenders, present participle pretendering, simple past and past participle pretendered)

1. (uncommon) To tender (a bid, etc.) in advance.
   • 1979, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Appropriations. Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, Energy and Water Development Appropriations for 1980: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Ninety-sixth Congress, First Session, page 1016:

     The LPM coordinates closely with the EPM and the case attorney throughout the pretendering period. The Licensing Assistant (LA) in the assigned project branch requests that a project number be assigned by the Records Facilities[…]

   • 1979, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, volume 6:

     Long-term delivery items were pretendered and purchased by the Government of the Northwest Territories in early 1975. Pretendered items included the polyethylene pipe and Victaulic couplings, a portable gasoline engine driven pump[…]

   • 1980 September 8, H. N. Ahuja, Successful Construction Cost Control, John Wiley & Sons, page 177:

     The prime contractor is then required to incorporate this pretendered work into his project schedule. In a similar fashion, the owner may want direct control over special materials needed on his project.

   • 1999 11, Bernard L. Ungar, Procurement Reform: How Selected Countries Perform Certain Gsa Activities, DIANE Publishing, →ISBN, page 17:

     These included pretendered "direct call-off" contracts covering over 50,000 products and services; the "Pathfinder" service for larger or more complex procurements; and direct sales and spot buying, where TBA coordinates volume[…]

   • (Can we date this quote?), U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Office of Standards Development, Regulatory Guide, page 12:

     The expanded pretendering activities will be initiated about 9 months prior to the proposed tendering of an application and will be designed to provide additional guidance and direction to the applicant during the preparation of its[…]

Learned borrowing from Latin praetendere.

pretender (first-person singular present pretendo, first-person singular preterite pretendín, past participle pretendido)

1. to want to; have the intention of
2. to claim (something that is very difficult to believe)
3. to try to marry or maintain a fiancé relationship with another person

Borrowed from Latin praetendere.

pretender (first-person singular present pretendo, first-person singular preterite pretendi, past participle pretendido)

1. to want
2. to pretend
3. to intend
4. to request
5. to aspire

• Pretender is a false friend, and does not mean pretend in the sense of to claim that or act as if something is different from what it actually is.

• pretenso
• pretensão

• “pretender”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “pretender”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from Latin praetendere.

• IPA^(key): /pɾetenˈdeɾ/ [pɾe.t̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]
• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: pre‧ten‧der

pretender (first-person singular present pretendo, first-person singular preterite pretendí, past participle pretendido)

1. to intend, to aim (for/to)

   Juan pretende tener su casa propia en tres años.

   Juan intends to have his own house in three years.

2. to woo, to court

   Synonym: cortejar

   Juan pretende a Fernanda porque él siempre le lleva rosas y chocolates

   Juan is courting Fernanda, so he always gives her roses and chocolates.

3. (Latin America, possibly nonstandard) to pretend, purport (claim, allege)
   • 2015, Juliet Escoria, translated by Matías Fleischmann, Nube negra‎^[1], Santiago: Los libros de la mujer rota, →ISBN:

     Estaba tan enojada esa noche cuando David llegó pero solo sonrió y miró y pretendió que todo estaba bien.

     I was so angry that night when David arrived, but he just smiled and looked and pretended that everything was fine.

   • 2020, Selenis Leyva, Marizol Leyva, translated by LM Editorial Services, Mi hermana‎^[2], New York: Bold Type Books, →ISBN:

     Es psicológicamente agotador pensar de esta manera, especialmente cuando se espera que ignoremos momentos como estos y pretendamos que no pasó nada o que nos levantemos al día siguiente y lo intentemos nuevamente.

     It's psychologically exhausting to think this way, especially when we're expected to ignore moments like these and pretend that nothing happened, or to get up the next day and try again.

   • 2022 December 24, Etiqueta Negra, “"El Senado y el Fiscal" solo por TV Senado”, in El Líbero‎^[3], Chile, archived from the original on 26 December 2022:

     Pero claro, rodeado un mal Presidente de malos ministros y peores asesores, no pretendamos que las cosas salgan bien y no sigan, como hasta ahora, de tumbo en tumbo.

     But of course, with a bad President surrounded by bad ministers and even worse advisors, let's not pretend that things will turn out well and won't keep going, as they have been up to now, from one stumbling block to the next.

• With the exception of non-standard or dialectal use (see sense 3), pretender is a false friend and does not mean pretendin the sense of to claim that or act as if something is different from what it actually is. The Spanish word for pretend in that sense is fingir.

• “pretender”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

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