pretension
/prɪˈtɛnʃən/
noun
- A claim or aspiration to a particular status, quality, or right, often one that is exaggerated or not justified.
- The restaurant has pretensions of being a five-star establishment, but the food is mediocre.
- He has artistic pretensions but has never actually painted anything.
- She dropped her pretensions to wealth and started living within her means.
- Behavior or attitude that is overly proud, showy, or trying to seem more important or cultured than one really is; pretentiousness.
- I can't stand the pretension of people who name-drop at parties.
- The novel is full of intellectual pretension, but the story is shallow.
- His pretension made him unpopular among his classmates.
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