blatantly
Americanadverb
-
in a shameless or conspicuous way; flagrantly.
While many of those workers are joining unions, many others are being blatantly ripped off.
-
in a way that is tastelessly loud, garish, or obvious.
She dyes her hair blond, but leaves her dark brown roots blatantly visible.
Etymology
Origin of blatantly
Explanation
When you do something blatantly, you do it obviously, without trying to hide it. You might blatantly lie to your boss if you don't care about getting in trouble. Something done or said blatantly is bold and shameless. You might be doing something bad, but if you're doing it blatantly you're not worried about repercussions. In 1596, the poet Edmund Spenser invented the word blatant, using it to describe a slanderous beast. In the 1600s blatantly meant offensively loud, and by the late 1800s it had its current meaning of "conspicuously, obviously." A similar word is flagrantly, but you'd use it to mean "shockingly," while blatantly is closer to "obnoxiously."
Vocabulary lists containing blatantly
The Crucible
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The Wishing Spell
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Wit, Wisdom, AND Vocabulary from Those We Lost in 2015
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Blatantly expository dialogue spells out what everyone’s thinking and what’s at stake.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 30, 2023
Blatantly bad officiating directly cost the Lions a victory two weeks ago, and Sunday it might have cost the Bucs as well.
From Washington Post • Oct. 28, 2019
Blatantly, Jeremy Irons was born to play the pope, aka Rodrigo Borgia, the cosseted, gold-hoarding power-obsessed head of the Borgias clan.
From The Guardian • Aug. 12, 2011
Blatantly among the missing were the theater's classics: on Broadway proper, there was not a single revival of an important drama.
From Time Magazine Archive
Blatantly it came around the corner, keeping time to its own noisy drums, and Stiffleg pricked up his ears.
From Jessica Trent: Her Life on a Ranch by Raymond, Evelyn
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
