pretender
- noun
- /prɪˈtɛndər/
- And James, the aristocratic Jacobite, pretender to the throne.
Examples
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We must face the fact that, in the eyes of Europe... ...you are a pretender to the throne of England.
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And when the hands of the clock strike 12, that precious little pretender to my throne will be gone!
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Will any other pretender to his throne please step forward?
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Claimed to be the pretender to the throne of Russia?
Fiction book (1998) -
Louis is in the Bastille, it seems, and the pretender has gone to church.
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There's a pretender to my throne.
Fiction book (2001) -
Well, unpatriotic activities, I suppose; of which collecting money for the support of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, pretender to the throne, was definitely one.
Fiction book (1991) -
Georgie must have felt like he was there to inflict the will of the masses on this pretender to the throne.
Fiction book (2002) -
In this scene, the playwright kinetically portrays Spain's predicament of being besieged on all sides by foreign pretenders to the throne.
Academic text (1998) -
Will any other pretender to his throne please step forward?
Synonyms
A woman who pretends to be a queen but has no real royal title
A person who claims rights or praise they have not earned
A person who pretends to have skills or money to impress others
How Legitimate
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Pretender comes from Latin parts prae- 'before' and tendere 'to stretch', and from Old French pretendre which meant 'to claim'. So a pretender is someone who 'puts forward' a claim to a throne or high office, often without a real right.