ostentation

American  

[os-ten-tey-shuhn, -tuhn-] / ˌɒs tɛnˈteɪ ʃən, -tən- /

noun

1. pretentious or conspicuous show, as of wealth or importance; display intended to impress others.

   Synonyms:

   extravagance, pretense, pretension, affectation

2. Archaic. the act of showing or exhibiting; display.

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ostentation British  

/ ˌɒstɛnˈteɪʃən /

noun

1. pretentious, showy, or vulgar display

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Usage

What are other ways to say ostentation?

Ostentation is the pretentious or conspicuous showing of one’s wealth or importance. How does ostentation compare to show, display, and pomp? Learn more on Thesaurus.com.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonostentation
  noun

Etymology

Origin of ostentation

1425–75; late Middle English ostentacioun < Middle French ostentation < Latin ostentātiōn- (stem of ostentātiō ), equivalent to ostentāt ( us ) past participle of ostentāre to display, exhibit, frequentative of ostendere to present, display (equivalent to os-, var of ob- ob- + ten ( dere ) to stretch + -t- frequentative suffix + -ātus -ate ¹ ) + -iōn- -ion

Explanation

Ostentation is a pretentious or showy display (gaudy or flashy), usually designed to attract attention. Ostentation is a woman in a fur coat, covered in diamond jewelry, boarding a gold-plated private jet. The noun ostentation stems from the Latin word ostentationem, meaning "vain display." It is often associated with material items that showcase one's wealth and luxury. Ostentation might come to the minds of the other parents if you drive a Lamborghini to drop your kids off at school. A movie star's gas-guzzling, 400-foot yacht may also be considered by many as a symbol of ostentation.

Example Sentences

Ostentation triumphed along the lower Mississippi, where Louisiana sugar planter John Andrews built his 75-room mansion Belle Grove in the late 1850s to overshadow neighboring Nottoway with its 64 rooms.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

Ostentation born of insecurity remains an undeniable fact, and Miami is its monument; but there is now enough old money and new taste in the U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

But what will you say to him, if after all this Parade and Ostentation, he never publishes his Memoirs; for upon my Word the thing is extremely doubtful.

From An Answer to a Scurrilous Pamplet [1693] by Anonymous

He was generous to a degree of Ostentation, and always aim'd to do something to be talk'd of.

From The Memoirs of Charles-Lewis, Baron de Pollnitz, Volume I Being the Observations He Made in His Late Travels from Prussia thro' Germany, Italy, France, Flanders, Holland, England, &C. in Letters to His Friend. Discovering Not Only the Present State of the Chief Cities and Towns; but the Characters of the Principal Persons at the Several Courts. by P?llnitz, Karl Ludwig von

In short, it is this foolish sanguine Temper, this depending upon Contingent Futurities, that occasions Romantick Generosity, Chymerical Grandeur, Senseless Ostentation, and generally ends in Beggary and Ruin.

From The Spectator, Volume 1 Eighteenth-Century Periodical Essays by Addison, Joseph