Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Excessive or unwarranted pride in one's accomplishments or qualities.
  • noun Vain, ostentatious display.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Extravagant pride or boastfulness; tendency to exalt one's self or one's own performances unduly; inflated and pretentious vanity; vain pomp or show.
  • To indulge in vain boasting.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Excessive vanity excited by one's own performances; empty pride; undue elation of mind; vain show; boastfulness.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Excessive vanity.
  • noun Boastful, unwarranted pride in one's accomplishments or qualities.
  • noun Vain, ostentatious display.
  • noun A regarding of oneself with undue favor

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun outspoken conceit

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English vein glory, from Old French vaine gloire, from Latin vāna glōria, empty pride : vāna, feminine of vānus, empty; see vain + glōria, glory, pride.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English waynglori ("worthless glory"), from Old French vaine glorie, from Medieval Latin vana gloria, from Latin vana ("empty", "groundless", "boastful") + gloria ("fame", "ambition", "boasting"), apparently modelled after similar terms in Germanic languages. Compare Old English īdel wuldor ("vain glory") and īdelġielp ("vainglory").

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Examples

Comments

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  • People don't use this word nearly enough.

    March 24, 2010

  • Don't you just love it when Carly Simon sings "You're So Vainglory"?

    March 24, 2010

  • I had some beans, they were cows in my coughing

    Cows in my coughing

    March 24, 2010