pretence
pre·tence/ˈpɹiːtɛns/noun
pretence is spelled P-R-E-T-E-N-C-E: 8 letters and 2 syllables (pre·tence). It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, pretence means “British standard spelling of pretense” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of pretence is pretences.
How many letters and syllables are in pretence?
| Letters | 8: P-R-E-T-E-N-C-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2: pre·tence |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 40,267th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is pretence?
Pretence appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,267th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce pretence?
- US /ˈpɹiːtɛns/
- UK /pɹɪˈtɛns/
Pretence has 2 syllables, split pre·tence in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-pretence.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of pretence
- pretences plural
- pretense US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does pretence mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
British standard spelling of pretense.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).