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Pretence vs Subterfuge - What's the difference?

pretence | subterfuge | Synonyms |

As nouns the difference between pretence and subterfuge

is that pretence is an act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext while subterfuge is an indirect or deceptive device or stratagem; a blind. Refers especially to war and politics.

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.

    • subterfuge

    English

    (wikipedia subterfuge)

    Noun

  • (countable) An indirect or deceptive device or stratagem; a blind. Refers especially to war and politics.
    • Overt subterfuge in a region nearly caused a minor accident.
  • * 2010 , (Clare Vanderpool), (Moon Over Manifest)
    • How’s the spy hunt going? Uncovered any subterfuge ?
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge —a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}
  • (uncountable) Deception; misrepresentation of the true nature of an activity.