'Pretender' definitions:
Definition of 'Pretender'
(from WordNet)
noun
A claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title)
noun
A person who makes deceitful pretenses [syn: imposter, impostor, pretender, fake, faker, fraud, sham, shammer, pseudo, pseud, role player]
noun
A person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives [syn: hypocrite, dissembler, dissimulator, phony, phoney, pretender]
Definition of 'Pretender'
From: GCIDE
- Pretender \Pre*tend"er\, n.
- 1. One who lays claim, or asserts a title (to something); a claimant. Specifically, The pretender (Eng. Hist.), the son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great Britain, from which the house was excluded by law. [1913 Webster]
- It is the shallow, unimproved intellects that are the confident pretenders to certainty. --Glanvill. [1913 Webster]
- 2. One who pretends, simulates, or feigns. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'pretender'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- actor,
- affecter,
- arrogator,
- aspirant,
- blagueur,
- bluff,
- bluffer,
- candidate,
- charlatan,
- claimant,
- deceiver,
- fake,
- faker,
- fourflusher,
- fraud,
- hollow man,
- humbug,
- impersonator,
- impostor,
- malingerer,
- man of straw,
- mannerist,
- mountebank,
- paper tiger,
- performer,
- phony,
- playactor,
- poser,
- poseur,
- quack,
- quacksalver,
- quackster,
- ringer,
- rival,
- saltimbanco,
- seeker,
- sham,
- shammer,
- straw man,
- suitor,
- usurper