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.

His first choice of prime minister was also dismissed by the courts on a seemingly trivial pretext.

From BBC • May 10, 2026

Instead he uses the war as a pretext for urging modern Britain to “accelerate munitions production” in preparation for a “European War” whose antagonists remain largely unspecified.

From Salon • Apr. 14, 2026

Circuit Court of Appeals, answered that whatever more detailed pretext arguments Pitchford later developed on appeal were waived because his defense attorney did not present them to the trial judge at the crucial moment.

From Slate • Apr. 10, 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

He watched his chance and stooped close beside Heqet on the pretext of helping him stoke an oven.

From "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw