pretentious

pretentious
adjective
pre·;ten·;tious pri-;ten(t)-sh;s
Synonyms of pretentious
1
: characterized by pretension: such as
a
: making usually unjustified or excessive claims (as of value or standing)
the pretentious fraud who assumes a love of culture that is alien to him
—Richard Watts
b
: expressive of affected, unwarranted, or exaggerated importance, worth, or stature
pretentious language
pretentious houses
2
: making demands on one's skill, ability, or means : ambitious
the pretentious daring of the Green Mountain Boys in crossing the lake
—Amer. Guide Series: Vt.
pretentiously adverb
pretentiousness noun

Synonyms
affected
grandiose
highfalutin
hifalutin
high-minded
la-di-da
la-de-da
lah-de-dah
lah-dee-dah
lah-di-dah
ostentatious
pompous
snippy
Choose the Right Synonym for pretentious

showy, pretentious, ostentatious mean given to excessive outward display.

showy implies an imposing or striking appearance but usually suggests cheapness or poor taste.

the performers' showy costumes
pretentious implies an appearance of importance not justified by the thing's value or the person's standing.

a pretentious parade of hard words
ostentatious stresses vainglorious display or parade.

the ostentatious summer homes of the rich
Examples of pretentious in a Sentence
It is hard to be pretentious or elevated in Yiddish, and easy to poke fun.
—Cynthia Ozick, New Yorker, 28 Mar. 1988
To anyone ignorant of the underlying physics, it might seem the most arrogant and pretentious necromancy.
—Carl Sagan, Contact, 1985
She seemed at that first meeting a little pretentious and a would-be intellectual—she was studying sociology in the States, a subject which thrives on banalities and abstract jargon …
—Graham Greene, Getting to Know the General, 1984
… and then a P.S. running into 20 pages both sides of the paper and coming back to the top of page one—Hegel, Nietzsche, Emerson, Gide, Beethoven, Suarez—all the boys trotted out in reams of pretentious blather.
—Myles na gCopaleen (Flann O'Brien), The Best of Myles, 1968
Recent Examples on the Web
Once the very idea of holding a wine tasting at one’s home was considered a pretentious way of ruining a convivial party.
—John Mariani, Forbes, 8 Oct. 2024
That said, both films sound like they were originally written in certain kind of pretentious but plausible French which then lost all verisimilitude when translated to English.
—Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Sep. 2024
The city is not as snooty and pretentious as San Francisco.
—Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2024
From the outside, Ramadan notes, the Nautor Swan community can look pretentious, unapproachable.
—Tonya Russell, Robb Report, 23 Sep. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pretentious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.


Word History
Etymology
borrowed from French pr;tentieux, from pr;tention "claim (as to excellence or superiority)" (going back to Middle French, borrowed from Medieval Latin praetenti;n-, praetenti;, variant of praetensi; "allegation, assertion") + -eux, going back to Latin -;sus -ose entry 1 — more at pretension entry 1

First Known Use
1832, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of pretentious was in 1832
See more words from the same year