pretensive

English

Etymology

From the participle stem of Latin praetendere +‎ -ive.

Adjective

pretensive (comparative more pretensive, superlative most pretensive)

1. (now rare) Pretended; feigned. [from 17th c.]
2. (chiefly US) Pretentious. [from 19th c.]
   • 1967, Charles Bukowski, letter, in On Writing, Canongate 2016, p. 95:

     I used half a lifetime reading the critics, and while I found the content pretensive I found the style somehow pleasurable […].

Derived terms

• pretensively
• pretensiveness

Anagrams

• presentive, vespertine