as in fraud
one who makes false claims of identity or expertise
it turns out that the guy who claimed to work for a modeling agency was just a pretender
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pretender
Carter noted that City Hall office workers will return to their cubicles three days per week as of April 1.
Related Articles
Contenders or pretenders?
—
Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 26 Mar. 2025
Every decision carries weight, and in a league where the line between contender and pretender is razor-thin, there’s little room for error.
—Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2025
The only saving grace for City is that there is no clear pretender to take its place as the top dog in English soccer.
—Joe Prince-Wright, Nbc Sports, NBC News, 20 Dec. 2024
Ball could be that piece to turn the Rockets from pretenders to contenders.
—Benedict Cosgrove, Newsweek, 19 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for pretender
Frederick Melo, Twin Cities, 26 Mar. 2025
Every decision carries weight, and in a league where the line between contender and pretender is razor-thin, there’s little room for error.
—Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 6 Jan. 2025
The only saving grace for City is that there is no clear pretender to take its place as the top dog in English soccer.
—Joe Prince-Wright, Nbc Sports, NBC News, 20 Dec. 2024
Ball could be that piece to turn the Rockets from pretenders to contenders.
—Benedict Cosgrove, Newsweek, 19 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for pretender
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pretender
Noun
-
More than £46 billion in loans had been disbursed by various lenders through the scheme, according to the Department for Business and Trade, but the agency also admitted there had been more than 100,000 cases of loss due to fraud and error.—
Robert Olsen,
Forbes.com,
28 May 2025
-
Instead of addressing waste and fraud and providing adults with a path to productive and independent lives through meaningful work, the Pritzker administration attacks these reform efforts.—
Regan Deering,
Chicago Tribune,
28 May 2025
Noun
-
Maybe the cows were fakes, or sold, moved somewhere or their tags were changed.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 May 2025
-
Unfortunately, we were deprived of all those fake idols getting played because players kept leaving the game with fakes in their pockets, socks, and bags.—
Dalton Ross,
EW.com,
15 May 2025
Noun
-
Meanwhile, Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has been exposed as nothing more than a sham.—
Paul Du Quenoy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 May 2025
-
Despite a unilateral three-day ceasefire declared by Russia beginning May 8, Ukraine has rejected it as a sham.—
Katya Soldak,
Forbes.com,
9 May 2025
Noun
-
Fortunately, plant enthusiasts quickly chimed in to identify the impostor.—
Lydia Patrick,
MSNBC Newsweek,
23 May 2025
-
Adelaide Tovar, a University of Michigan scientist who researches genes related to diabetes, used to feel like an impostor in a laboratory.—
Brett Kelman,
Miami Herald,
1 May 2025
Noun
-
Trying to keep the population safe from a novel infectious disease, battling to understand the virus, but also navigating people's suspicion of vaccines and science, and their desire to use bleach and ivermectin, egged on by charlatans.—
David Faris,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Apr. 2025
-
For them, the Nazarene is not a charlatan, but an upright man, one who has courage, who speaks well and says the right things, like other great prophets in the history of Israel.—
Daniel Burke,
NPR,
9 May 2025
Noun
-
With tariffs on pharmaceuticals, the mountebank of Mar-A-Lago wants to punish a small democracy of 5.3 million people that for the past 60 years has worked its way into the top table of drug research and production: Ireland.—
Kevin Rennie,
Hartford Courant,
29 Mar. 2025
-
Gould observed that Jerry Falwell had taken up the mountebank’s mission of William Jennings Bryan.—
Michael Hiltzik,
Los Angeles Times,
26 July 2024
Noun
-
The Spare Room by Helen Garner This is a book about a woman, Helen, who decides to let her old friend, Nicola, who is dying of cancer, come and stay with her in Melbourne while Nicola sees a local quack doctor.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
21 May 2025
-
And this is why hydropathy was not like many of the other quack medical therapies of the not-quite-modern era.—
John Jeremiah Sullivan,
Harpers Magazine,
29 Apr. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Pretender.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pretender. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share