pre·ten·sion 
(prĭ-tĕnshən)
(prĭ-tĕnshən)n.
1. A specious allegation; a pretext: "the pretension that current political arrangements serve everyone's interests" (Steven Pinker).
2.
a. A claim to something, such as a skill or profession: a writer's pretensions to journalistic detachment.
b. The advancing of such a claim: tried to prevent his pretensions to the throne.
3.
a. The unwarranted assumption that one is deserving of merit, or behavior indicative of such an assumption; pretentiousness: "the popular association of wine with snobbery and pretension" (Paul Lukacs).
b. An instance of pretentiousness: "[He] was a likable, boyish man from a middle-class Southern background, though his aristocratic manner and pretensions suggested otherwise" (Mary V. Dearborn).