How to Use pretext in a Sentence

pretext

noun

• She went back to her friend's house on the pretext that she had forgotten her purse.
• Ukraine and the West say this is a baseless pretext for war.
  — Fox News, 1 May 2022
• The rule quickly caused pretext stops by the LAPD to plummet.
  — Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 20 Dec. 2023
• The play isn’t the thing but simply the pretext for disaster.
  — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 14 Aug. 2023
• Here, Franklin’s life is merely the pretext for a #MeToo-era tract.
  — Armond White, National Review, 11 Aug. 2021
• Holiday’s drug use is a pretext for both the F.B.I. and Daniels.
  — Wesley Morris, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2022
• But some in the party had dismissed that as a pretext to jam Biden through.
  — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 22 July 2024
• The rebels, led by Mr. Kagame, said the Hutu extremists downed the plane as a pretext for genocide.
  — Abdi Latif Dahir, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2024
• On the other hand, the pandemic was little more than a pretext in the first place.
  — Samuel Goldman, The Week, 6 Apr. 2022
• The movie, like an old disco single, is just a pretext.
  — David Denby, Vulture, 3 July 2024
• Lewellen applied for a warrant to search Esteppe’s home on the false pretext the man sold drugs.
  — Tim Prudente, baltimoresun.com, 28 Aug. 2020
• Wolff says Trump toyed with the idea of postponing the election, using the Floyd protests as a pretext.
  — Washington Post, 17 July 2021
• In essence, Pence was being asked to endorse a stack of forgeries and then use them as pretext for a coup.
  — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 13 Aug. 2023
• Ukraine and its allies call that a false pretext for a war of aggression.
  — Reuters, NBC News, 31 May 2022
• On March 17, the country’s new president banned protests for more than a year under the pretext of stopping the spread of the virus.
  — Max De Haldevang, Quartz, 1 Apr. 2020
• Prosecutors said the teenagers were lured to the same park under the pretext of a gang meeting.
  — Salvador Rizzo, Washington Post, 2 July 2022
• To be clear: Everyone in the world of academia understands this to be a pretext, and a shabby one at that.
  — The Editors, National Review, 8 Mar. 2023
• The city is at the heart of the pretext provided by Mr. Abbas to postpone elections.
  — Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, 29 Apr. 2021
• Such claims could be used as a pretext for escalating the war.
  — John Bacon, USA TODAY, 2 Nov. 2022
• Western leaders dismissed the claims as a false pretext for the attack.
  — chicagotribune.com, 24 Mar. 2022
• The shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, by police in Kenosha, Wis., was the pretext for nights of looting and arson.
  — Nr Editors, National Review, 3 Sep. 2020
• Analysts see those as the seeds of a pretext that Maduro could use to postpone or cancel the election at the last minute.
  — David Shortell, CNN, 21 July 2024
• This isn’t the first time the state has cut off internet access under the pretext of exams.
  — Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 27 Sep. 2021
• The pretext is subject to so much discretion, Kenney said, that a great deal of bias can work its way in.
  — NBC News, 12 May 2021
• His gut tells him that all this talk about the cost of living is simply a pretext for owners to make more money.
  — New York Times, 20 Aug. 2022
• While the city was experiencing a surge in cases at the time, many in Hong Kong say the health concerns were a pretext.
  — John Lyons, WSJ, 6 Sep. 2020
• But their threat served as a pretext for Sessions to intercede.
  — Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker, 10 Nov. 2019
• The police beat men like him on little pretext, and fists land in his face, on rugby days, for no reason at all.
  — New York Times, 5 Dec. 2021
• The Houthis’ objective appears to be less opening a new front in the Gaza war than in using it as a pretext to demonstrate their power and capabilities.
  — Zack Beauchamp, Vox, 4 Oct. 2024
• Russia understands this—its goal will be to paint Ukraine as intransigent, providing a pretext to stall talks.
  — Niall Ferguson, The Atlantic, 10 Dec. 2024

Last Updated: 1 Feb 2025