"make-believe" meaning in English

See make-believe in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-make-believe.wav , LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-make-believe.wav Forms: make-believes [plural]
Etymology: Deverbal from make believe. Etymology templates: {{deverbal|en|make believe}} Deverbal from make believe Head templates: {{en-noun|~}} make-believe (countable and uncountable, plural make-believes), {{tlb|en|sometimes|childish}} (sometimes childish)
  1. (uncountable) The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not. Tags: childish, sometimes, uncountable
    Sense id: en-make-believe-en-noun-2RvY06Jl Categories (other): English deverbals, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English deverbals: 69 24 6 Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 79 13 7 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 74 16 10 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 90 7 3
  2. (uncountable) The condition of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are. Tags: childish, sometimes, uncountable
    Sense id: en-make-believe-en-noun-U23G0~xi
  3. (countable) Something imaginary. Tags: childish, countable, sometimes
    Sense id: en-make-believe-en-noun-WfIJOCeu
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: makebelieve, make believe

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "make believe"
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      "expansion": "Deverbal from make believe",
      "name": "deverbal"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Deverbal from make believe.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "make-believes",
      "tags": [
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  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "69 24 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English deverbals",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "79 13 7",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [
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            "Entry maintenance"
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          "_dis": "90 7 3",
          "kind": "other",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985, “The Lady Don't Mind”, in Little Creatures, performed by Talking Heads:",
          "text": "Come on, come on, I go up and down / I like this curious feeling / I know, I see, it's like make believe / Cover your ears so you can hear what I'm saying",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not."
      ],
      "id": "en-make-believe-en-noun-2RvY06Jl",
      "links": [
        [
          "pretending",
          "pretending"
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        [
          "as if",
          "as if"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(uncountable) The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "childish",
        "sometimes",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "The condition of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are."
      ],
      "id": "en-make-believe-en-noun-U23G0~xi",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(uncountable) The condition of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "childish",
        "sometimes",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:",
          "text": "‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Marjorie Lindon, to even think such nonsense. Are you all nerves and morbid imaginings,—you who have prided yourself on being so strong-minded! A pretty sort you are to do battle for anyone.—Why, they’re only make-believes!’",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something imaginary."
      ],
      "id": "en-make-believe-en-noun-WfIJOCeu",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(countable) Something imaginary."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "childish",
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      "word": "makebelieve"
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      "_dis1": "0 0 0",
      "word": "make believe"
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{
  "categories": [
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English deverbals",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "English uncountable nouns",
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  ],
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      "args": {
        "1": "~"
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  "pos": "noun",
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        "English uncountable nouns"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1985, “The Lady Don't Mind”, in Little Creatures, performed by Talking Heads:",
          "text": "Come on, come on, I go up and down / I like this curious feeling / I know, I see, it's like make believe / Cover your ears so you can hear what I'm saying",
          "type": "quote"
        }
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      ],
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          "pretending",
          "pretending"
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        [
          "as if",
          "as if"
        ]
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        "(uncountable) The quality or act of pretending; acting as if something is true when in fact one knows it is not."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "childish",
        "sometimes",
        "uncountable"
      ]
    },
    {
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      "glosses": [
        "The condition of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are."
      ],
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        "(uncountable) The condition of pretending or imagining that things are better than they really are."
      ],
      "tags": [
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        "sometimes",
        "uncountable"
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:",
          "text": "‘You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Marjorie Lindon, to even think such nonsense. Are you all nerves and morbid imaginings,—you who have prided yourself on being so strong-minded! A pretty sort you are to do battle for anyone.—Why, they’re only make-believes!’",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something imaginary."
      ],
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        "(countable) Something imaginary."
      ],
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        "countable",
        "sometimes"
      ]
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    },
    {
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "makebelieve"
    },
    {
      "word": "make believe"
    }
  ],
  "word": "make-believe"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-28 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-11-21 using wiktextract (65a6e81 and 0dbea76). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.