pseudo
part of speech
adjective (informal); prefix pseudo- (fragment)
meaning for a pupil
1) (prefix) «pseudo-» means false or pretend, looking like something it is not: pseudoscience, pseudonym. tree →
2) (informal adjective) Fake, not genuine, or pretending to be clever: «His pseudo-intellectual talk annoyed everyone.» tree →
sense in the lessons
Mostly met as a prefix in school words: a pseudonym is a pen name (Mark Twain was a pseudonym), pseudoscience is a claim that looks like science but does not use proper evidence (like horoscopes). In maths and computing, «pseudocode» is a plan for a program written in simple words.
examples
- Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Clemens. tree →
- Astrology is a pseudoscience, not a real science. tree →
- Write your program in pseudocode first. tree →
- His pseudo-friendliness didn't fool anyone. tree →
- Some authors use a pseudonym to stay private. tree →
- The advert used pseudo-scientific words to sound clever. tree →
note
Mostly a prefix; on its own it is informal. The «p» is silent: «SOO-doh» or «SYOO-doh». From Greek «pseudes», false.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «pseudo» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.