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
The contenders, pretenders and everybody in between.
—
Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 25 Sep. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for pretender
Andrew Callahan, Boston Herald, 25 Sep. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for pretender
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pretender
Noun
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New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a federal judge Friday to dismiss a mortgage fraud case against her, calling it a vindictive and politically motivated prosecution brought at the behest of a president who regards her as an enemy.—
Dave Smith,
Fortune,
8 Nov. 2025
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Quick action can sometimes limit further loss or help investigators trace the fraud.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
8 Nov. 2025
Noun
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Today, the same fakes can be flagged using AI developed by a company called N2N Services, said Claudia Lee, Golden West College’s vice president of student services.—
Jaweed Kaleem,
Los Angeles Times,
2 Jan. 2026
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With the score 3-0 at the time, and both teams struggling to protect their quarterbacks, the fake looked like a potential pivot point in a low-scoring game.—
Ralph D. Russo,
New York Times,
2 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Floral bedding is an easy way to optimize maximalism in your bedroom—the block print style of this duvet cover and shams create a welcoming, bohemian vibe, making things feel both bright and relaxed in your space.—
Julia Harrison,
Architectural Digest,
8 Jan. 2026
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His 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham because the main opposition parties were banned from participating.—
Regina Garcia Cano,
Fortune,
4 Jan. 2026
Noun
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In such places – and especially when the would-be ally’s role is highly visible and entails heavy responsibility – people are vulnerable to impostor feelings.—
John M. LaVelle,
The Conversation,
9 Dec. 2025
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Now, artificial intelligence has become the latest battleground for digital impostors.—
Staff,
FOXNews.com,
28 Nov. 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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First up was Ben Shapiro, who described Tucker Carlson and others as grifters and charlatans, guilty of misleading their audiences with falsehoods and conspiracy theories.—
Jonathan J. Cooper,
Fortune,
19 Dec. 2025
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Of course, there is also plenty of Trump flattery along with paeans to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his cockamamie make-America-sick-again agenda, as one medical charlatan nods to another.—
Mark Z. Barabak,
Mercury News,
10 Dec. 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 9 Jan. 2026.
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