different between pretence vs ambition

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English ambicion, from Old French ambition, from Latin ambiti? (“ambition, a striving for favor, literally 'a going around', especially of candidates for office in Rome soliciting votes”), from ambi? (“I go around, solicit votes”). See ambient, issue.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /æm?b?.??n/

Noun

ambition (countable and uncountable, plural ambitions)

1. (uncountable, countable) Eager or inordinate desire for some object that confers distinction, as preferment, honor, superiority, political power, or literary fame; desire to distinguish one's self from other people.
   • 1756, Edmund Burke, A Vindication of Natural Society

     the pitiful ambition of possessing five or six thousand more acres

2. (countable) An object of an ardent desire.

3. A desire, as in (sense 1), for another person to achieve these things.
4. (uncountable) A personal quality similar to motivation, not necessarily tied to a single goal.
5. (obsolete) The act of going about to solicit or obtain an office, or any other object of desire; canvassing.

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ambition.

Related terms

• ambience
• ambient
• ambit
• ambitious
• ambitionist

Translations

Verb

ambition (third-person singular simple present ambitions, present participle ambitioning, simple past and past participle ambitioned)

1. To seek after ambitiously or eagerly; to covet.
   • 1746, C Turnbull, The Histories Of Marcus Junianus Justinus

     Pausanias, ambitioning the sovereignty of Greece, bargains with Xerxes for his daughter in marriage.

Further reading

• ambition in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ambition in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Danish

Noun

ambition c

1. ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiøs

Further reading

• “ambition” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “ambition” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

Finnish

Noun

ambition

1. Genitive singular form of ambitio.

French

Etymology

From Latin ambiti?

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??.bi.sj??/

Noun

ambition f (plural ambitions)

1. ambition (feeling)

Related terms

• ambitieux
• ambitionner

Further reading

• “ambition” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

ambition c

1. en ambition

Declension

Related terms

• ambitiös