pretense vs semblance

pretense and semblance both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
pretense	Yes	No	No	No
semblance	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, semblance is a hypernym of pretense; that is, semblance is a word with a broader meaning than pretense:

pretense: an artful or simulated semblance
semblance: an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading

Other hypernyms of pretense include color, colour, gloss.

pretense (noun)	semblance (noun)
the act of giving a false appearance	picture consisting of a graphic image of a person or thing
a false or unsupportable quality	an outward or token appearance or form that is deliberately misleading
an artful or simulated semblance	an erroneous mental representation
imaginative intellectual play
pretending with intention to deceive