Synonyms for pretext
ˈpri tɛkstpre·text

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:4.0 / 1 vote

1. pretextverb

   Synonyms:
   blag

2. pretextverb

   To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.

   The spy obtained his phone records using possibly-illegal pretexting methods.

   Synonyms:
   blag

English Synonyms and AntonymsRate these synonyms:5.0 / 1 vote

1. pretext

   A pretense, in the unfavorable, which is also the usual sense, is something advanced or displayed for the purpose of concealing the reality. A person makes a pretense of something for the credit or advantage to be gained by it; he makes what is allowed or approved a pretext for doing what would be opposed or condemned; a tricky schoolboy makes a pretense of doing an errand which he does not do, or he makes the actual doing of an errand a pretext for playing truant. A ruse is something (especially something slight or petty) employed to blind or deceive so as to mask an ulterior design, and enable a person to gain some end that he would not be allowed to approach directly. A pretension is a claim that is or may be contested; the word is now commonly used in an unfavorable sense. Compare ARTIFICE; HYPOCRISY.

   Synonyms:
   affectation, air, assumption, cloak, color, disguise, dissimulation, excuse, mask, pretense, pretension, ruse, seeming, semblance, show, simulation, subterfuge, trick, wile

   Antonyms:
   actuality, candor, fact, frankness, guilelessness, honesty, ingenuousness, openness, reality, simplicity, sincerity, truth

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. pretext, stalking-horsenoun

   something serving to conceal plans; a fictitious reason that is concocted in order to conceal the real reason

   Synonyms:
   pretence, guise, stalking-horse, pretense

2. guise, pretense, pretence, pretextnoun

   an artful or simulated semblance

   "under the guise of friendship he betrayed them"

   Synonyms:
   pretending, pretence, simulation, pretense, pretension, feigning, guise, make-believe, stalking-horse, dissembling

Matched Categories

1. • Pretense
   • Semblance

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:0.0 / 0 votes

1. pretextnoun

   Synonyms:
   show (to conceal a thing done), appearance, affectation, simulation, mask, color, PRETENCE

PPDB, the paraphrase databaseRate these paraphrases:0.0 / 0 votes

1. List of paraphrases for "pretext":

   excuse, guise, pretence, alibi, pretense, cloak

How to pronounce pretext?

How to say pretext in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use pretext in a sentence?

1. United States:

   There is no reason for Beijing to turn a potential visit, consistent with long standing United States policy, into some sort of crisis or conflict, or use it as a pretext to increase aggressive military activity in or around the Taiwan Strait.

2. Zhao Lijian:

   It is only using this as a pretext to oppress Chinese companies, destabilize Xinjiang and slander China's Xinjiang policy.

3. Raphael Warnock:

   We are witnessing right now a massive and unabashed assault on voting rights unlike anything we have seen since the Jim Crow era. This is Jim Crow in new clothes, since the January election, some 250 voter suppression bills have been introduced by state legislatures all across the country – from Georgia to Arizona, from New Hampshire to Florida – [all] using the Big Lie of voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression.

4. Lloyd Austin:

   I think if a chemical or biological weapon was used, you would see a significant reaction from not only the United States, but also the global community, i think what we've seen from the Russians in the past is they're raising issues and creating a pretext so that if they did something in the battle space, they could blame it on somebody else, either Ukrainians or us, NATO.

5. Jake Sullivan:

   Our intelligence community has developed information, which has now been downgraded, that Russia is laying the groundwork to have the option of fabricating the pretext for an invasion, we saw this playbook in 2014. They are preparing this playbook again and we will have, the administration will have, further details on what we see as this potential laying of the pretext to share with the press over the course of the next 24 hours.