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Pretense vs Profess - What's the difference?

pretense | profess |

As a noun pretense

is a false or hypocritical profession, as, under pretense of friendliness.

As a verb profess is

to administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive..

pretense

English

Alternative forms

* pretence (Only correct spelling in the UK, the Republic of Ireland, and Commonwealth countries, and historical use in the United States) * (archaic)

Noun

(en noun)
  • (US) A false or hypocritical profession, as, under pretense of friendliness.
  • Intention or purpose not real but professed.
    • with only a pretense of accuracy
  • An unsupported claim made or implied.
  • An insincere attempt to reach a specific condition or quality.

    • Synonyms

    * affectation denotes deception for the sake of escape from punishment or an awkward situation * false pretense * fiction * imitation * pretext * sham * subterfuge * See also

    Related terms

    * pretend * pretender * pretension * pretentious * pretentiousness

    External links

    * *

    Anagrams

    * * *

    profess

    English

    Verb

    (es)
  • To administer the vows of a religious order to (someone); to admit to a religious order. (Chiefly in passive.)
  • * 2000 , Butler's Lives of the Saints , p.118:
    • This swayed the balance decisively in Mary's favour, and she was professed on 8 September 1578.
  • (reflexive) To declare oneself (to be something).
  • * 2011 , Alex Needham, The Guardian , 9 Dec.:
    • Kiefer professes himself amused by the fuss that ensued when he announced that he was buying the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor.
  • (ambitransitive) To declare; to assert, affirm.
  • * c. 1604 , (William Shakespeare), Measure for Measure , First Folio 1623:
    • He professes to haue receiued no sinister measure from his Iudge, but most willingly humbles himselfe to the determination of Iustice.
  • * Milton
    • The best and wisest of them all professed / To know this only, that he nothing knew.
  • * 1974 , ‘The Kansas Kickbacks’, Time , 11 Feb 1974:
    • The Governor immediately professed that he knew nothing about the incident.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=(Gary Younge)
    • , volume=188, issue=26, page=18, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Hypocrisy lies at heart of Manning prosecution , passage=WikiLeaks did not cause these uprisings but it certainly informed them. The dispatches revealed details of corruption and kleptocracy that many Tunisians suspected,
  • To make a claim (to be something), to lay claim to (a given quality, feeling etc.), often with connotations of insincerity.
  • * 2010 , Hélène Mulholland, The Guardian , 28 Sep 2010:
    • Ed Miliband professed ignorance of the comment when he was approached by the BBC later.
  • To declare one's adherence to (a religion, deity, principle etc.).
  • * 1983 , Alexander Mcleish, The Frontier Peoples of India , Mittal Publications 1984, p.122:
    • The remainder of the population, about two-thirds, belongs to the Mongolian race and professes Buddhism.
  • To work as a professor of; to teach.
  • *, II.12:
  • *:he was a Spaniard, who about two hundred yeeres since professed Physicke in Tholouse .

    • External links

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