pretence

Noun

• the act of giving a false appearance
  • his conformity was only pretending
    

• imaginative intellectual play

• pretending with intention to deceive

• an artful or simulated semblance
  • under the guise of friendship he betrayed them
    

• a false or unsupportable quality

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  pretense , pretending , simulation , feigning , make-believe , dissembling , guise , pretext , pretension