Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Pretender |
PretenderNoun1. A claimant to the throne or to the office of ruler (usually without just title). 2. A person who makes deceitful pretenses. 3. A person who professes beliefs and opinions that they do not hold. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "Pretender" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Pretender The Old Pretender. James F. E. Stuart, son of James II. (1688-1766.) The Young Pretender. Charles Edward Stuart, son of the "Old Pretender." (1720-1788.) "God bless the king, I mean the faith's defender; God bless- no harm in blessing- the Pretender. Who that Pretender is and who is king- God bless us all!- that's quite another thing." John Byrom. Pretenders. Tanyoxarke, in the time of Cambyses, King of Persia, pretended to be Smerdis; but one of his wives felt his head while he was asleep, and discovered that he had no ears. Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck, in the reign of Henry VIII. Otrefief, a monk, pretended to be Demetrius, younger son of Czar Ivan Basilowitz II., murdered by Boris in 1598. In 1605 Demetrius "the False" became Czar, but was killed at Moscow the year following, in an insurrection. Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
A Pretender is a claimant to an abolished or already occupied throne. Deposed monarchs are not seen as pretenders, as the term only applies to those who have never occupied the throne.
State Pretender Link to Past Monarchy
Austria Crown Prince Otto Son of the last Emperor-King, Karl I of Austria
Albania Crown Prince Leka I Son of the last king, Zog of Albania
France Henri, Comte de Paris, Duc de France (Orleanist-Legitimist*: generally accepted) descendant of Louis-Philippe of France
France Louis-Alphonse, Duc d'Anjou (Legitimist: minority support) descendant of Louis XIV of France
Germany and Prussia Georg Friedrich, Prince of Prussia descendant of the last Emperor, Wilhelm II
Hungary Crown Prince Otto von Habsburg Son of the last King-Emperor, Charles IV of Hungary
Ireland The O'Conor Don Ireland's senior gaelic peer & descendant of the last Irish High King Rory O'Connor
Italy Crown Prince Victorio Emanuele Son of the last king, Humbert II of Italy
Montenegro Nikola, Prince of Montenegro Descendant of the last king, Nikola I of Montenegro
Portugal The Duke of Bragança distant relative of the last king Manuel II
Serbia and Yugoslavia Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia son of the last king, Peter II
French Pretenders
Following the death of the childless legitimist pretender 'Henry V', Comte de Chambord, grandson of King Charles X of France in the 1880s, the majority of Legitimists accepted the Comte's selection as heir, the Orleanist pretender, the Comte de Paris, grandson of King Louis-Philippe as the Legitimist pretender to the French throne. A small minority refused to accept this designation, and chose instead a very distant Spanish-based descendant of an earlier monarch. Hence there are in effect two legitimist pretenders, though the Orleanist pretender, the modern Comte de Paris, is generally accepted by most French monarchs as the pretender, as the list above shows.
Russian Pretenders
There is much debate over whom is the legitmate heir to the Russian throne. Grand Duke George is considered by some to be the legitimate heir, being the grandson of a cousin of Czar Nicholas II of Russia. However, the Grand Duke's mother, Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna also claims to be the rightful heir to the throne. The massacre of the Romanovs that followed the Russian Revolution has made tracking a legitmate hier to the Russian throne very difficult, and some believe there is no legitimate heir at all.
Fake pretenders
Some well-known impostors who claimed to be a genuine pretender include:
- Various impersonators of Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, notably Anna Anderson
- The fake Baldwin I of Constantinople, whose real name probably was Bertrand of Rais
- Lambert Simnel, who claimed to be Edward, Earl of Warwick
- Perkin Warbeck, who claimed to be Richard, Duke of York
- The three false Dimitris of Russia
- Karl Wilhelm Naundorff, who claimed to be Louis XVII of France
- Michel Lafosse, a.k.a. Prince Michael of Albany, who claims to be the jacobite heir to the Scottish throne
"The Great Pretender" is a song by The Platters (lyrics).
The Pretender is an album and song by Jackson Browne.
The Pretender was the name of a television show on the NBC network.
The Pretenders are a rock music group.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Pretender."
Synonyms: PretenderSynonyms: dissembler (n), fake (n), faker (n), fraud (n), hypocrite (n), imposter (n), impostor (n), phoney (n), phony (n), pseud (n), pseudo (n), role player (n), sham (n), shammer (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Boasting | Boaster; braggart, braggadocio; Gascon, fanfaron, pretender, soi-disant; blower, bluffer, Foxy Quiller; blusterer; charlatan, jack-pudding, trumpeter; puppy; (fop). |
Deceiver | Imposter, pretender, soi-disant, humbug; adventurer; Cagliostro, Fernam Mendez Pinto; ass in lion's skin; (bungler); actor; (stage player). |
Undueness | Usurper, pretender. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Pretender |
| English words defined with "Pretender": Grammaticaster ♦ Oath of abjuration ♦ Philosophaster, Philosophist, Politicaster, Pretendant, Pretendership, Psilosopher ♦ Simular ♦ Theologaster ♦ Witling. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "Pretender": Black Friday ♦ Defender of the Faith ♦ Jacobites ♦ King Over the Water, KNIGHT AND BARROW PIG ♦ Out in the Fifteen, Out in the Forty-five ♦ Parolles ♦ QUACK ♦ Red Basque Cap, Redgauntlet, Remis atque Velis ♦ Skeggs ♦ White Cockade ♦ Young Chevalier. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "Pretender": gimcrack. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Pretender" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Portuguese (aspire, aspire to, claim, contend, desire, hope for, intend, mean, nip, play-act, presume, pretend, purpose, seek, want, wish), Romansch (to pretend), Spanish (aim, allege, claim, mean, pretend, profess, purport, to claim, woo). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Lyrics | I don't want another pretender (Dreamlover; performing artist: Mariah Carey) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Pretender (1947) | |
Song Titles | Great Pretender, The (performing artist: The Platters) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Mary Pickford in the movie, "The Pretender"] / 2-Stenberg-2. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| "Pretender" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 85.71% of the time. "Pretender" is used about 91 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 85.71% | 78 | 37,656 |
| Noun (proper) | 10.99% | 10 | 111,207 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 3.3% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 91 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "Pretender": pretender to scholarship ♦ pretender to the throne. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "Pretender"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | pretendues (assuming, claimant, contender). (various references) | |
Arabic | المتظاهر ب (simulator), المطالب بالعرش, المدع (claimant, complainant, poseur, prosecutor, upstart), الزاعم. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | преструван (counterfeiter, dissimulator, fake, shammer), претендент (challenger, claimant, nominee), позьор (affected person, dude, fraud, poser, poseur, prig, sham). (various references) | |
Chinese | 伪装者. (various references) | |
Czech | pretendent, žadatel (applicant, claimant, petitioner, solicitor). (various references) | |
Finnish | kruununtavoittelija (claimant to the throne). (various references) | |
French | prétendant. (various references) | |
German | Thronbewerber. (various references) | |
Greek | μνηστήρ (suitor, woo), υποκριτής, απαιτών, διεκδικών, διεκδικητήσ (challenger, claimant), διεκδικητής. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מעמי" פ ים (poseur), ימרן (ambitious, claimant, smart aleck), תבען (claimant, clamourer), טוען לכתר. (various references) | |
Hungarian | trónkövetelő, tettető (counterfeiter, simulator), szimuláns (counterfeiter, malingerer, simulator, swinger), színlelő (counterfeiter, disingenuous, simulator), igényt tartó, igénylő (absorbing, claimant). (various references) | |
Indonesian | penipu (duper, liar, mountebank, two timer), pembohong (fib, liar, rook). (various references) | |
Italian | pretendente (beau, claimant, freer, suitor). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 似非者 (counterfeit, fraud, impostor, sham). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | えせもの (counterfeit, fraud, impostor, sham). (various references) | |
Korean | "구자 (Demander). (various references) | |
Manx | fer lhigggey, aggyrtagh (claimant, claiming, demanding). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | etenderpray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | pretendente (applicant, aspirant, prospect, suitor, swain, wooer), simulador (mimic, simulator), fingidor, aspirante a (would-be). (various references) | |
Romanian | pretendent (candidate, claimant, lover, suitor), prefãcut (affected, assumed, cattish, false, falsified, forged, guileful, histrionic, hollow-hearted, hypocritical, insidious, mock, panting, pecksniffian, pharisaical, pharisee, seeming, sham, squeamish, treacherous). (various references) | |
Russian | претендент (applicant, aspirant, challenger, claimant, contender). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pretendent (aspirant), simulant (dissembler, faker, malingerer). (various references) | |
Spanish | pretendiente (beau, suitor, Swain, wooer), simulador (simulator), impostor (humbug, impostor, sham, shammer). (various references) | |
Swedish | pretendent (claimant, claimer). (various references) | |
Turkish | talip (aspirant, claimant, suitor), tahta hak iddia eden sahtekâr, isteyen kimse, hak iddia eden kimse (claimant). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | удавальник (dissimulator, make believe, pi, pretendant, shammer), обманщик (bluff, bluffer, cheat, counterfeit, counterfeiter, deceiver, dissembler, double-dealer, foist, fraud, humbug, impostor, mountebank, phoney, trickster, twister), претендент без законних прав. (various references) | |
Vietnamese | người giả b, người giả đò, người đòi hỏi không chính đáng. (various references) | |
Welsh | ymhonnwr. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "Pretender": pretenders. (additional references) | |
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"Pretender" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pertenue, Pertunda, Pietzner, preener, pretenden, Prorender, protandry, retender. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "Pretender" (pronounced prēte"nder) |
| 5 | -t e" n d er | contender, tender. |
| 4 | -e" n d er | Ender, engender, bender, blender, defender, Fender, gender, lender, offender, render, sender, slender, Spender, splendor, surrender, suspender, vendor. |
| 3 | -n d er | Alexander, asunder, attainder, auslander, Bander, bartender, binder, blander, blinder, blonder, blunder, bookbinder, bounder, brander, bystander, calamander, calendar, candor, cinder, cofounder, commander, Condor, coriander, cylinder, extender, finder, flounder, fonder, founder, gander, gerrymander, grander, grinder, highlander, hinder, islander, kinder, Lander, launder, lavender, mainlander, meander, minder, oleander, pander, pathfinder, Pinder, plunder, ponder, pounder, rejoinder, remainder, reminder, responder, rounder, salamander, sander, Sidewinder, slander, sounder, squander, Stander, sunder, thunder, tinder, transponder, under, viewfinder, wander, weekender, winder, wonder, yonder, Zander. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-e-e-n-p-r-r-t" | |
-1 letter: repented, repenter, repetend, tenderer. | |
-2 letters: entered, enterer, petered, preened, preener, preteen, pretend, reenter, terpene, terreen, terrene. | |
-3 letters: deepen, deeper, entree, eterne, needer, peened, peered, perter, render, rented, renter, repent, retene, teener, tender. | |
-4 letters: deter, ender, enter, erred, peter, preed, preen, rente, tepee, terne, treed, treen, trend. | |
-5 letters: deep, deer, deet, dene, dent, dere, dree, epee. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-e-e-n-p-r-r-t" | |
+1 letter: pretenders. | |
+2 letters: carpentered, interpreted, repatterned, represented. | |
+3 letters: interpleader, interspersed, peradventure, peregrinated, preconcerted, predetermine, preponderate, redemptioner. | |
+4 letters: interpleaders, peradventures, pervertedness, predetermined, predeterminer, predetermines, preponderated, preponderates, redemptioners, reinterpreted, underreported, unrepresented. | |
+5 letters: interpermeated, misinterpreted, misrepresented, predeterminers, predetermining, preinterviewed, preponderately. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Derivations 12. Rhymes | 13. Anagrams 14. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
