Pre*tend"er (?), n.
1.
One who lays claim, or asserts a title (to something); a claimant.
Specifically,
The pretender Eng. Hist., the son or the grandson of James II., the heir of the royal family of Stuart, who laid claim to the throne of Great Britain, from which the house was excluded by law.
It is the shallow, unimproved intellects that are the confident pretenders to certainty.
Glanvill.
2.
One who pretends, simulates, or feigns.
© Webster 1913.