pretender

/[pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]/ verb

Letters

9 characters

Frequency Rank

#9,023

in Spanish word usage

Misspellings

14

tracked variants

Confusables

10

similar word pairs

pretender is aSpanishverb. It means: Hacer diligencias o esfuerzos para conseguir lo que se desea. Pronounced [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]. It ranks #9,023 in Spanish word frequency. Often confused with pretendo and pretendía.

Key facts for pretender
PropertyValue
Headwordpretender
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechVerb
IPA[pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]
Letters9
Frequency rank#9,023
Misspellings tracked14
Confusable pairs10
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of pretender in Spanish word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for pretender is 9 letters long, classified as averb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]. Corpus data places it at rank #9,023 in overall Spanish word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 14 documented wrong-spelling variants for pretender, with forms such as "pertender", "ppretender", and "preetnder". 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 10 confusable-pair relationships, "pretendo", "pretendía", "pretendes", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Spanish form is pretender, spelled P-R-E-T-E-N-D-E-R, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Hacer diligencias o esfuerzos para conseguir lo que se desea.
  2. 2
    Solicitar una cosa, haciendo las diligencias necesarias para su consecución.
  3. 3
    Intentar algo que a priori no es posible.
  4. 4
    Cortejar a una mujer para volverse su pareja o casarse con ella.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: pertender,ppretender,preetnder,pretedner,pretendder,pretenderr,pretendre,pretenedr,pretennder,pretneder,prettender,prretender,prteender,rpetender

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for pretender

Misspelling Variants of "pretender"

pertender9ppretender10preetnder9pretedner9pretendder10pretenderr10pretendre9pretenedr9
Misspelling Variants of "pretender"

Frequency rank: #9,023 in Spanish

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "pretender"?
"pretender" is spelled P-R-E-T-E-N-D-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ].
What does "pretender" mean?
As a verb, "pretender" means: Hacer diligencias o esfuerzos para conseguir lo que se desea.
What words are commonly confused with "pretender"?
"pretender" is commonly confused with "pretendo", "pretendía", "pretendes". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "pretender"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "pretender" is [pɾet̪ẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "pretender" come from?
"pretender" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby Spanish words

Other entries that begin with the letter P in our Spanish index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.