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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If convicted of bank fraud or making false statements, the penalties could include up to 30 years in prison and $1 million in fines for each count, the DOJ says.—
Deputy News Editor,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Oct. 2025
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Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images A federal grand jury in Virginia last night indicted New York Attorney General Letitia James on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.—
Alex Harring,
CNBC,
10 Oct. 2025
Noun
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In the decades that followed, Freeman, who died in 2025, assembled a vast array of literary fakes, collecting books whose content is deceiving in nature.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
13 Oct. 2025
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Jets linebacker Jamien Sherwood, a terrific young player, bit hard on the fake and came up to the line of scrimmage toward Mims.—
Parker Gabriel,
Denver Post,
13 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The complete set comes with a cozy bedspread and two matching pillow shams to match.—
Mariana Best,
Better Homes & Gardens,
8 Oct. 2025
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This sheet set also comes with shams, all made from cotton percale for a cool, crisp sleep year-round.—
Julia Harrison,
Architectural Digest,
6 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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He is dismissed as an impostor, but is his story true?—
Phillipa Gregory,
PEOPLE,
4 Oct. 2025
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By the finale, the galactic chessboard is crowded with players—emperors, rebels, prophets, impostors—but as Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) warned in the very first episode, the center cannot hold.—
JP Mangalindan,
Time,
12 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Famously, the Wizard is a charlatan in every version of the text.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
30 Aug. 2025
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No matter the party affiliation, there’ll be charlatans claiming to care, while smooth-talking their way into the homes of hard-working people who struggle.—
Letters to the Editor,
The Orlando Sentinel,
15 July 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 15 Oct. 2025.
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