Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Claiming that or behaving as if one is important or deserving of merit when such is not the case.
- adjective Showing or betraying an attitude of superiority.
- adjective Marked by an extravagant or presumptuous outward show; ostentatious: synonym: showy.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Pretended; unfounded; false.
- Full of pretension, or claims to greater excellence or importance than the truth warrants; attempting to pass for more than the actual worth or importance; making an exaggerated outward show.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Marked by an
unwarranted claim toimportance ordistinction . - adjective
Ostentatious ; intended to impress others.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction
- adjective (of a display) tawdry or vulgar
- adjective intended to attract notice and impress others
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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One thing I noticed about the comments on your blog is that folks often use the term pretentious to describe a restaurant.
Blog updates 2009
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Although he finds the phrase "pretentious," he realized he was bearing witness so that peoples' suffering "will not have happened in vain."
NPR Topics: News 2011
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Although he finds the phrase "pretentious," he realized he was bearing witness so that peoples' suffering "will not have happened in vain."
NPR Topics: News 2011
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It's absolutely true "pretentious" is thrown around quite a lot, and often in a way that isn't an argument about the literature, but about the hypothetical motives of its creators or its appreciators.
Pretentiousness Hal Duncan 2008
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It's a provocative premise, but mired in pretentious posturing and glacial pacing, though enlivened by terrific acting by all of the twitchy, edgy principals.
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He studied the row of buttons on the trendy contraption that some would call a coffee machine and he called a pretentious piece of pain-in-the-ass machinery.
A Light at Winter’s End Julia London 2011
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He studied the row of buttons on the trendy contraption that some would call a coffee machine and he called a pretentious piece of pain-in-the-ass machinery.
A Light at Winter’s End Julia London 2011
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Later we get more on the wisdom of trees, written in pretentious tones like this:
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What made it even more pretentious is that that appeared IN THE CONTENTS PAGE, despite there being nothing but those words there.
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Really, how much more pretentious is Obama going to get before he just gets down to the business of the American people?
Watching the Train Roll By - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2009
johnmperry commented on the word pretentious
Pretentious? Moi?
- great line from Eddie Murphy
June 26, 2008
skipvia commented on the word pretentious
Which he stole from the incomparable Fawlty Towers, "The Psychiatrist" episode.
June 26, 2008
johnmperry commented on the word pretentious
Can't be that incomparable, I can't even remember it! I remember most of them, but that one not.
June 26, 2008