pretext
Example Sentences
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In February, when Russia opened a case against him, Durov described it as a pretext to restrict Russians’ privacy and free speech.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
We still see this in so many cases involving the Fourth Amendment, when police use the alleged smell of marijuana as a pretext for an illegal search.
From Slate ● Jun. 18, 2026
“We’re worried this is a pretext for people to fall out of the asylum system and fall out of the workforce,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
But some industry watchers say firms are using the technology as a pretext for other cost-cutting.
From Barron's ● May 21, 2026
"All we need is some pretext for going down to our ship to-day and taking stuff on board."
From "The Horse and His Boy" by C.S. Lewis
No surprise, the panel agreed with him and concocted pretexts to kill the treatment—for instance, the staff opined that maybe biopsies had zapped the tumors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
The Syrian foreign ministry denounced the attack as "an outrageous assault on Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and called Israel's justification "flimsy pretexts and fabricated excuses".
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
In his video statement Sunday, Powell dismissed the renovation and testimony as "pretexts".
From Barron's ● Jan. 13, 2026
The pretexts are flimsy; due process is absent, and mistakes have already been made.
From Slate ● Apr. 3, 2025
They regarded the pretexts on which the war had been declared with contemptuous incredulity, believing them to be but thin disguises of its real object.
From The Loyalists of Massachusetts And the Other Side of the American Revolution by James H. Stark
Vocabulary lists containing pretext
Animal Farm
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Grade 11, List 2
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