pretext
/ˈpɹiːtɛkst/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.27 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else.
Example Sentences
- "The reporter called the company on the pretext of trying to resolve a consumer complaint."
- "[T]hey would ſay [...] that I had quarrell'd / My brother purpoſely, thereby to finde / An apt pretext, to baniſh them my houſe."
- ""After all," said the Chevalier, "these portraits—Madame de I'Hôpital's fortune-telling—the pleasure we take in a lover or a physician—may all be referred to the same cause,—we do so enjoy talking about ourselves; and yet we feel some sort of excuse necessary. It must be admitted, that we are ready in pretexts.""
- "On every kind of pretext she would run away from work [...]"
- "The smallest incidents were to serve as pretexts for demonstrations of force and for demands for indemnities and reparations which increased China's subjection."
- "When that metaphor proves untenable, he switches to insisting that women are like beer but that’s mainly as a pretext to drink until he passes out in a father-son bonding haze."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *tetḱ-, praetextum