“Todd Brown had obviously come on board under the pretense of being a guest.”

“Often, I conned my mother into letting me stay up late with the pretense of homework or reading a book.”

“Morishima is clearly arguing in favor of using the pretense of independence as a diplomatic ploy.”

“It has been supposed that she was compromised in the conspiracy which had caused a new pretender to the throne to spring up in Ireland.”

“I believe that Trocero will bring forward some pretender who he will claim is King Conan.”

“Sometimes the country has to take precedence over a do-nothing imposter and pretender to the throne.”

“Ambrosius spoke to Praxiteles without a trace of pretension or arrogance.”

“The lack of pretension in the decor was surprising. She didn't know what she had expected, but the offices of upper management she had seen usually looked more like small museums, lined with trophies, plaques, and photographs.”

“Under the pretension that the act enforces competition, the freebooters in the industry push to the limit predatory competition for the purpose of destroying and gradually securing control.”

“He asked me questions without any pretence at politeness.”

“Often, I conned my mother into letting me stay up late with the pretence of homework or reading a book.”

“He abducted the queen on the pretence of seeking to protect her.”

“It merely serves as a pretext to whip the country into a war frenzy and to justify the insertion of large numbers of troops.”

“The mugging was merely the pretext for heavy-duty flirting between a dishy detective and Keelin, the lovelorn physiotherapist.”

“I'm tired of all the deception and pretending!”

“The actor's pretentiousness was evident in his condescending attitude towards the cast and crew.”

“Her pretentiousness during the awards ceremony was met with thunderous applause and admiration from the crowd.”

“Contemporary dance is constantly called upon to protest its relevance against accusations of complacency and pretentiousness.”

“We all are able to live as peaceful observers, whose acts are deprived of agitation and pretention.”

“On the way, we stopped a few hours in Valladolid, a little colonial city, pretty and without any pretention.”

“Lacking conscious artistry or literary pretention, his writing is noted for the brilliant intellect it reveals.”

“Dunne, a silver-voiced soprano with aristocratic pretensions equal to any White Russian, had a great time in the role.”

“Davis jettisons all pretensions to nostalgic Englishness and anchors the works firmly in the European post-Romantic tradition.”

“Everybody sees through their warp, through their bias, through their pretensions, through their needs all of that.”

“Doesn't the fact that the entire Security Council told Iraq that it has to disarm suggest that it, too, has pretentions of knowing what's best for the Iraqi people?”

“European universalism traditionnaly confuses universalism with its own pretentions.”

“For a system of thought to be classified as a pseudoscience, should it not have scientific pretentions?”

“Can't we just get rid of the young pretenders and instal him as King of England?”

“As a result, attempts to dethrone Henry were poorly supported in England and the Yorkist pretenders failed to carry conviction.”

“I saw myself protecting poetry against the pretenders, the charlatans, the fakers.”

“If his case doesn't justify asylum, then there are millions of undeserving asylum seekers living here under false pretences.”

“The nuances, exaggerations and pretences of conversation can be taken literally.”

“Fights were sometimes orchestrated under false pretences, so that inmates could swipe and pilfer a target person's store items.”

“In lucid prose, he shreds pretenses and pretexts and demands consistent, bright lines.”

“They'll put on the usual pretenses of being happy to be there, and all, but I know it's all a facade.”

“Were I lying, then I would simply bestow upon you some vague time in the future, so as to draw things out for pretenses and falsehoods.”

“Moreover, where national enterprises are non-competitive, the imperial states invent pretexts to protect them from more efficient producers.”

“This would bring an end to his many attempts to extort money from organisations on the flimsiest of pretexts.”

“He has often sought to justify repression on the pretexts of threatened coups against his government.”