different between mockery vs pretence

English

Etymology

From Middle English mokkery, from Anglo-Norman mokerie, mokery and Middle French mocquerie, moquerie, from moquer, moker (“to mock”) + -erie (“-ery”), perhaps from Byzantine Greek ????? (m?kós, “mocker”), perhaps from Arabic ?????????? (al-makru, “guile, cunning”). Equivalent to mock +? -ery.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?m?k??i/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?k??i/

Noun

mockery (countable and uncountable, plural mockeries)

1. The action of mocking; ridicule, derision.
2. Something so lacking in necessary qualities as to inspire ridicule; a laughing-stock.
3. (obsolete) Something insultingly imitative; an offensively futile action, gesture etc.
4. Mimicry, imitation, now usually in a derogatory sense; a travesty, a ridiculous simulacrum.

   The defendant wasn't allowed to speak at his own trial - it was a mockery of justice.

Usage notes

• We often use make a mockery of someone or something, meaning to mock them. See also Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:ridicule

Translations

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