different between attire vs pretence

English

Etymology

From Middle English atyren, atiren, from Old French atirier (“to equip”), from a- + tire (“rank”), akin to German Zier (“ornament”) and Old Norse tírr (“glory, renown”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??ta??(?)/
• Rhymes: -a??(?)

Noun

attire (countable and uncountable, plural attires)

1. (clothing) One's dress; what one wears; one's clothes.

   He was wearing his formal attire.

2. (heraldry) The single horn of a deer or stag.

Translations

Verb

attire (third-person singular simple present attires, present participle attiring, simple past and past participle attired)

1. (transitive) To clothe or adorn.

Synonyms

• dight, don, dress; see also Thesaurus:clothe

Translations

Anagrams

• aettir, ratite

French

Verb

attire

1. first-person singular present indicative of attirer
2. third-person singular present indicative of attirer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of attirer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of attirer
5. second-person singular imperative of attirer

Anagrams

• attéri, étirât, itérât, traite, traité

English

Alternative forms

• pretense (American spelling)
• prætence (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle French pretensse, from Late Latin praet?nsus (past participle of praetend? (“to pretend”), from prae- (“before”) + tend? (“to stretch”)).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?p?i?t?ns/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /p???t?ns/
  • Rhymes: -?ns
• Hyphenation: pre?tence

Noun

pretence (countable and uncountable, plural pretences)

1. (British spelling) An act of pretending or pretension; a false claim or pretext.
   • 1995, Charlie Lewis, Peter Mitchell, Children?s Early Understanding Of Mind: Origins And Development, p.281,

     In pilot work we have used the method described in Experiment 2 on children?s memory for the content of their own false beliefs and pretence and asked them to differentiate between belief and pretence.

   • 2005, Plato, Lesley Brown (translator), Sophist, 231b.

     That part of education that turned up in the latest phase of our argument, the cross-examination of the empty pretence of wisdom, is none other, we must declare, than the true-blooded kind of sophistry.

2. Something asserted or alleged on slight evidence; an unwarranted assumption.
3. (obsolete) Intention; design.

Translations