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Hypocrisy vs Pretence - What's the difference?

hypocrisy | pretence | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between hypocrisy and pretence

is that hypocrisy is the claim or pretense of having beliefs, standards, qualities, behaviours, virtues, motivations, etc. which one does not actually have while pretence is an act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.

hypocrisy

English

Noun

(hypocrisies)
  • The claim or pretense of having]] beliefs, standards, qualities, [[behaviour, behaviours, virtues, motivations, etc. which one does not actually have.
  • The practice of engaging in the same behaviour or activity for which one criticises another; moral self-contradiction whereby the behavior of one or more people their own claimed or implied possession of certain beliefs, standards or virtues.
  • An instance of either or both of the above.

    • Derived terms

    * hypocritical * hypocritically * hypocrite

    See also

    * ("hypocrisy" on Wikipedia)

    pretence

    English

    Alternative forms

    * pretense (American spelling) * (archaic)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (label) An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.
  • * 1819 , Oliver Goldsmith, Charles Coote, The History of England, from the Earliest Times to the Death of George the Second , Volume 3, p.115,
  • *:Great armaments were therefore put on foot in Moravia and Bohemia, while the elector of Saxony, under a pretence of military parade, drew together about sixteen thousand men, which were posted in a strong situation at Pima.
  • *
  • *:There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy.Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place. Pushing men hustle each other at the windows of the purser's office, under pretence of expecting letters or despatching telegrams.
  • *1995 , Charlie Lewis, Peter Mitchell, Children?s Early Understanding Of Mind: Origins And Development , p.281,
  • *:In pilot work we have used the method described in Experiment 2 on children?s memory for the content of their own false beliefs and pretence' and asked them to differentiate between belief and ' pretence .
  • *2005 , (Plato), Lesley Brown (translator), Sophist , .
  • *:That part of education that turned up in the latest phase of our argument, the cross-examination of the empty pretence of wisdom, is none other, we must declare, than the true-blooded kind of sophistry.
  • (label) Intention; design.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
  • *:A very pretence and purpose of unkindness.