pretext

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

They were going to court for hearings they had to attend, then getting scooped up under a pretext that itself turned out to be a lie.

From Slate • Mar. 27, 2026

Prosecutors say the first team of Russian operatives arrived in Angola's capital, Luanda, in 2024 under the pretext of opening a Russian cultural centre, a project that never materialised.

From BBC • Mar. 23, 2026

"The occupier, under the pretext of security and for its own interests, has closed the mosque," cleric Ayman Abu Najm, who had come from Beit Hanina, a Palestinian neighbourhood in east Jerusalem, said.

From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026

For as long as index funds have existed, they’ve been under attack from competitors flinging one flimsy pretext after another.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 13, 2026

It was such an unforeseen attitude that Amaranta Úrsula felt humiliated by the idea that she had given her husband the pretext that he had wanted in order to abandon her to her fate.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez