Profess

Verb

 * 1) To make open declaration of, as of one's knowledge, belief, action, etc.; to avow or acknowledge; to confess publicly; to own or admit freely.
 * 2) To set up a claim to; to make presence to; hence, to put on or present an appearance of.
 * 3) To present to knowledge of, to proclaim one's self versed in; to make one's self a teacher or practitioner of, to set up as an authority respecting; to declare (one's self to be such); as, he professes surgery; to profess one's self a physician.
 * 4) To take a profession upon one's self by a public declaration; to confess.
 * 5)  To declare friendship.

Thesaurus
act, act a part, affect, affirm, allege, announce, annunciate, argue, assert, assever, asseverate, assume, aver, avouch, avow, bluff, claim, confess, confirm, contend, counterfeit, cover up, declare, depose, dissemble, dissimulate, enunciate, express, express the belief, fake, feign, four-flush, gammon, have, hold, insist, issue a manifesto, lay down, let on, let on like, maintain, make a pretense, make as if, make believe, make like, manifesto, offer, play, play a part, play possum, playact, predicate, present, pretend, pretext, proclaim, proffer, pronounce, protest, protest too much, purport, put, put forward, put it, put on, say, set down, set forth, sham, simulate, speak, speak out, speak up, stand for, stand on, state, submit, swear, tender, utter, vow, warrant