pretext vs sham

pretext

noun
  • A false, contrived, or assumed purpose or reason; a pretense. 

verb
  • To employ a pretext, which involves using a false or contrived purpose for soliciting the gain of something else. 

sham

noun
  • Trickery, hoaxing. 

  • A decorative cover for a pillow. 

  • A false front, or removable ornamental covering. 

  • A fake; an imitation that purports to be genuine. 

  • Champagne. 

verb
  • To obtrude by fraud or imposition. 

  • To deceive, cheat, lie. 

  • To assume the manner and character of; to imitate; to ape; to feign. 

adj
  • mock 

  • Intended to deceive; false. 

  • counterfeit; unreal 

  • See also Thesaurus:fake 

How often have the words pretext and sham occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )