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Pretence vs Sham - What's the difference?

pretence | sham |

As nouns the difference between pretence and sham

is that pretence is an act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext while sham is a fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine.

As an adjective sham is

intended to deceive; false.

As a verb sham is

to deceive, cheat, lie.

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.

    • sham

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Intended to deceive; false.
    • It was only a sham wedding: they didn't care much for one another but wanted their parents to stop hassling them.
  • counterfeit; unreal
  • * Jowett
    • They scorned the sham independence proffered to them by the Athenians.

    Synonyms

    * mock * See also

    Antonyms

    * genuine * sincere * real

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine.
    • The time-share deal was a sham .
  • Trickery, hoaxing.
    • A con-man must be skilled in the arts of sham and deceit.
  • A false front, or removable ornamental covering.
  • A decorative cover for a pillow.

    • Derived terms

    * shamateur

    See also

    * pillow sham

    Verb

    (shamm)
  • To deceive, cheat, lie.
  • * L'Estrange
    • Fooled and shammed into a conviction.
  • To obtrude by fraud or imposition.
  • * L'Estrange
    • We must have a care that we do not sham fallacies upon the world for current reason.
  • To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign.

    • External links

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    Anagrams

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