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
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of pretender
Adjustments will be made, and by November and December, there will be a much clearer picture of who the contenders and pretenders are.
—
Mark Lasota, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
Crazy as this sport is, all four teams might be pretenders.
—Ken Rosenthal, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2025
Knotts took that wide-eyed, wiry, fidgety frame and used it to create the great underdogs and pretenders.
—Steve Belanger, HollywoodReporter, 10 Sep. 2025
But the Bolts don't have enough pieces to go from pretenders to contenders.
—Robert Marvi, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pretender
Mark Lasota, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2025
Crazy as this sport is, all four teams might be pretenders.
—Ken Rosenthal, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2025
Knotts took that wide-eyed, wiry, fidgety frame and used it to create the great underdogs and pretenders.
—Steve Belanger, HollywoodReporter, 10 Sep. 2025
But the Bolts don't have enough pieces to go from pretenders to contenders.
—Robert Marvi, MSNBC Newsweek, 16 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for pretender
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pretender
Noun
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This 2023 docuseries centers on the Murdaughs, South Carolina's illustrious legal dynasty, whose members were tied to multiple homicides, financial fraud and other alleged crimes.—
James Mercadante,
PEOPLE,
25 Oct. 2025
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According to the State Department, altered passports are among the most common types of passport fraud.—
Lauren Dana Ellman,
Travel + Leisure,
25 Oct. 2025
Noun
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So did a disturbing AI fake of Parton on her deathbed.—
Bryan Alexander,
USA Today,
3 Nov. 2025
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That became a clear problem for an identification credential that is expected to be universal in a world where fakes are commonplace.—
Elliot Mann,
Twin Cities,
27 Oct. 2025
Noun
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For a bedding refresh, this duvet cover set is available in 26 colors and includes matching shams.—
Rachel Trujillo,
PEOPLE,
26 Oct. 2025
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This three-piece set from Chezmoi Collection includes a bedspread and two matching shams that resist pilling, shrinking, and thinning over time, all while regulating temperature to prevent overheating.—
Mariana Best,
Better Homes & Gardens,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Islamic eschatology warned of a deceiver who distorts perception, blurring reality.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
15 Aug. 2025
Noun
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In another film with a less happy outcome, the woman who claims to be the amnesiac’s wife is an impostor who ends up torturing him.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
24 Oct. 2025
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McKelway, who wrote for the magazine from the nineteen-thirties to the sixties, specialized in true-crime stories, bringing to life a gallery of scamps and swindlers and impostors.—
David Grann,
New Yorker,
19 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The 1886 hotel was once an experimental hospital set up by infamous charlatan Norman Baker.—
Noreen Kompanik,
Boston Herald,
26 Oct. 2025
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Professional historians denounced Fomenko as a charlatan, but his countless fans remained undeterred.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
21 Oct. 2025
Noun
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To tell the truly venomous from the fakers, there are a couple details to help distinguish the two.—
Kirsten Fiscus,
Nashville Tennessean,
17 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Caricatured by Honoré Daumier and his lesser followers always as a mountebank, a charlatan, a circus clown, Louis Napoleon could normalize the extent of his outrages by the seeming harmlessness of his absurdities.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
13 June 2025
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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
Cite this Entry
“Pretender.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pretender. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
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