pretend
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
7 characters
Language
English
word origin
Source
Wiktionary
open dictionary
Access
Free
no sign-up needed
Detailed reference entry for the English word "pretend", 7-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "pretend" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "pretend" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
pretend is aEnglishverb. It means: To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance. Pronounced /pɹəˈtɛnd/. It ranks #4,108 in English word frequency. Often confused with preyed and prevent.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pretend |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /pɹəˈtɛnd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #4,108 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for pretend is 7 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɹəˈtɛnd/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,108 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 11 documented wrong-spelling variants for pretend, with forms such as "pertend", "ppretend", and "preetnd". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "preyed", "prevent", "pretext", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-der. Proto-Italic *prai Proto-Italic *prai- Latin prae- Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend-der. Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Latin praetendōbor. Anglo-Norman pretendrede… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is pretend, spelled P-R-E-T-E-N-D, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance.
- 2To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance.
- 3To speak or behave so as to give a false or simulated appearance.
- 4To lay claim (to an ability, status, advantage, etc.).
- 5To hold before, or put forward, as a cloak or disguise for something else; to exhibit as a veil for something hidden.
- 6To intend; to design, to plot; to attempt.
- 7To hold before one; to extend.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *per- Proto-Indo-European *preh₂-der. Proto-Italic *prai Proto-Italic *prai- Latin prae- Proto-Indo-European *ten- Proto-Indo-European *tend-der. Proto-Italic *tendō Latin tendō Latin praetendōbor. Anglo-Norman pretendreder. English pretend From Anglo-Norman pretendre, Middle French pretendre (French prétendre (“to claim, demand”)), from Latin praetendere (“to put forward, hold out, pretend”), from prae- (“pre-”) + tendō (“stretch”); see tend.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: pertend,ppretend,preetnd,pretedn,pretendd,pretennd,pretned,prettend,prretend,prteend,rpetend
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for pretend
Misspelling Variants of "pretend"
Frequency rank: #4,108 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "pretend"?
What does "pretend" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "pretend"?
How do you pronounce "pretend"?
What is the origin of the word "pretend"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter P in our English index: