Pretext
noun
An excuse or reason that is not true, used to cover up the real purpose or reason.
He used his friend’s birthday party as a pretext to leave work early.
Often appears as...
- under the pretext of
- pretext for
noun
An excuse or reason that is not true, used to cover up the real purpose or reason.
He used his friend’s birthday party as a pretext to leave work early.
Often appears as...
- under the pretext of
- pretext for
Definition 1 of 1
Pro Tip 1/3Deceptive Intentions
Pretext is used when someone hides their true intent behind a false reason.
She said she needed to borrow my notes as a pretext, but she just wanted to see me.
Pro Tip 2/3Concealing Truth
Using pretext suggests intentional deceit, not just an accidental untruth.
Claiming to be ill, he stayed home under the pretext of sickness, while he was actually fine.
Pro Tip 3/3Unjustifiable Excuse
A pretext is often seen as an insufficient or unworthy excuse for an action.
He used tiredness as a pretext to avoid attending the meeting.
Pro Tip 1/3Deceptive Intentions
Pretext is used when someone hides their true intent behind a false reason.
She said she needed to borrow my notes as a pretext, but she just wanted to see me.
Pro Tip 2/3Concealing Truth
Using pretext suggests intentional deceit, not just an accidental untruth.
Claiming to be ill, he stayed home under the pretext of sickness, while he was actually fine.
Pro Tip 3/3Unjustifiable Excuse
A pretext is often seen as an insufficient or unworthy excuse for an action.
He used tiredness as a pretext to avoid attending the meeting.
Pro Tip 1/3Deceptive Intentions
Pretext is used when someone hides their true intent behind a false reason.
She said she needed to borrow my notes as a pretext, but she just wanted to see me.
Pro Tip 2/3Concealing Truth
Using pretext suggests intentional deceit, not just an accidental untruth.
Claiming to be ill, he stayed home under the pretext of sickness, while he was actually fine.
Pro Tip 3/3Unjustifiable Excuse
A pretext is often seen as an insufficient or unworthy excuse for an action.
He used tiredness as a pretext to avoid attending the meeting.
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Video examples
Pen Pal Experiment: Two...
more labor-intensive than just thriving standard metrics through using technological devices the very first week of dear data we chose a pretty cold and impersonal topic how many time do we check the time in a week we discover something about the other person's days through the pretext of my data
Video examples
How porn changes the way...
with misogyny, sexual violence and rape in this country, and pornography probably isn't helping with any of that. And a critically important problem to me was that for more than a century, the anti-pornography position had been used as a pretext
Video examples
Fireflies: Nature's...
signaling to miles of other species luring them in on the pretext of mating but instead she has them for dinner digesting their prey while they're still
Video examples
Pen Pal Experiment: Two...
more labor-intensive than just thriving standard metrics through using technological devices the very first week of dear data we chose a pretty cold and impersonal topic how many time do we check the time in a week we discover something about the other person's days through the pretext of my data
Video examples
How porn changes the way...
with misogyny, sexual violence and rape in this country, and pornography probably isn't helping with any of that. And a critically important problem to me was that for more than a century, the anti-pornography position had been used as a pretext
Video examples
Fireflies: Nature's...
signaling to miles of other species luring them in on the pretext of mating but instead she has them for dinner digesting their prey while they're still
Example 1 of 3
Quote examples
Herta Muller
German Novelist
For me, each journey to Romania is also a journey into another time, in which I never knew which events in my life were coincidence and which were staged. This is why I have, in every public statement I have made, demanded access to the secret files kept on me which, under various pretexts, have invariably been denied me.
Quote examples
Noam Chomsky
American Activist
As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world.
Quote examples
Nelson Mandela
South African Statesman
I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car.
Quote examples
Muqtada al Sadr
Iraqi Clergyman
Who is against democracy? Is it the one who calls for peaceful resistance, or the one who bombs people, sheds their blood and leads them away from the leaders under feeble and dirty pretexts?
Quote examples
Kim Il-sung
North Korean Leader
It is wrong to try to avoid the struggle against imperialism under the pretext that independence and revolution are important, but that peace is still more precious.
Quote examples
John Bright
British Politician
If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure.
Quote examples
Leslie Stephen
English Author
If you wish at once to do nothing and be respectable nowadays, the best pretext is to be at work on some profound study.
Quote examples
Quintilian
Roman Educator
We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
Quote examples
Voltaire
French Writer
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
Quote examples
Edmund Burke
Irish Statesman
Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
Quote examples
Herta Muller
German Novelist
For me, each journey to Romania is also a journey into another time, in which I never knew which events in my life were coincidence and which were staged. This is why I have, in every public statement I have made, demanded access to the secret files kept on me which, under various pretexts, have invariably been denied me.
Quote examples
Noam Chomsky
American Activist
As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world.
Quote examples
Nelson Mandela
South African Statesman
I would wear the blue overalls of the fieldworker and often wore round, rimless glasses known as Mazzawati teaglasses. I had a car, and I wore a chauffeur's cap with my overalls. The pose of chauffeur was convenient because I could travel under the pretext of driving my master's car.
Quote examples
Muqtada al Sadr
Iraqi Clergyman
Who is against democracy? Is it the one who calls for peaceful resistance, or the one who bombs people, sheds their blood and leads them away from the leaders under feeble and dirty pretexts?
Quote examples
Kim Il-sung
North Korean Leader
It is wrong to try to avoid the struggle against imperialism under the pretext that independence and revolution are important, but that peace is still more precious.
Quote examples
John Bright
British Politician
If this phrase of the 'balance of power' is to be always an argument for war, the pretext for war will never be wanting, and peace can never be secure.
Quote examples
Leslie Stephen
English Author
If you wish at once to do nothing and be respectable nowadays, the best pretext is to be at work on some profound study.
Quote examples
Quintilian
Roman Educator
We excuse our sloth under the pretext of difficulty.
Quote examples
Voltaire
French Writer
To the wicked, everything serves as pretext.
Quote examples
Edmund Burke
Irish Statesman
Tyrants seldom want pretexts.
Example 1 of 10
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