pretension.

1. A claim or aspiration to possess a particular status, quality, or ability.

2. An attempt to seem more important, cultured, or impressive than is warranted.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• pretensions to expertise
• literary pretensions

On the page

He had no pretensions to expertise in navigation.

Her literary pretensions survived every rejected manuscript.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychological / character. Forms: Singular pretension; plural pretensions. Affected-importance sense usually mass. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.