pre-, prae-

1. To claim; profess; allege [to stretch forth or to move in a certain direction].
2. To claim or profess falsely; feign;.
3. To make believe, as in play or in an attempt to deceive; feign.

1. A claim, especially an unsupported one, as to some distinction or accomplishment; pretension.
2. A false claim or profession.
3. A false show of something.

Making claims, explicit or implicit, to some distinction, importance, dignity, or excellence.

The syllable or vowel preceding the stressed or accented syllable; so pretonic, coming immediately before the stressed or tonic syllable.

1. To be greater in influence or strength; to triumph.
2. To be or become effecive; to win out.
3. To be in current force, to use, or to effect.

Widely existing, accepted, or practiced.

1. To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or to withhold information.
2. To avoid giving a direct and honest answer or opinion, or a clear and truthful account of a situation, especially by quibbling or being deliberately ambiguous or misleading.
3. To stray from or to evade the truth; to equivocate: "As a witness under oath, she didn't prevaricate but answered honestly."
4. To speak falsely or misleadingly.
5. To deliberately misstate or create an incorrect impression; to lie.

1. The deliberate act of deviating from the truth.
2. Intentionally vague or ambiguous; equivocation.
3. A statement which deviates from or perverts the truth.
4. The avoidance of telling the truth or of saying exactly what one really thinks.
5. The deliberate act of deviating from the truth; lying.
6. Etymology: from about 1382, "divergence from a right course, transgression", from Old French prevaricacion, from Latin prævaricationem, "a stepping out of line (of duty or behavior)"; from prævaricatus, a form of prævaricari, "to make a sham accusation, to deviate"; literally, "to walk crookedly", from prae, "before" + varicare, "to straddle", from varicus "straddling", from varus, "bowlegged, knock-kneed".

1. Someone who has lied or who lies repeatedly.
2. A person who speaks falsely; a liar.
3. Anyone who speaks so as to avoid the precise truth; a quibbler; an equivocator.

1. Coming or occurring in advance of another thing.
2. Producing a sense of anticipation.

1. To cause something not to happen or to stop it from being done.
2. To be the reason why someone does not or cannot do a particular thing.