pompous
Americanadjective
-
characterized by an ostentatious display of dignity or importance.
a pompous minor official.
- Synonyms:
- pretentious
-
ostentatiously lofty or high-flown.
a pompous speech.
-
Archaic. characterized by pomp, or a display of stately splendor or magnificence.
an impressive and pompous funeral.
adjective
-
exaggeratedly or ostentatiously dignified or self-important
-
ostentatiously lofty in style
a pompous speech
-
rare characterized by ceremonial pomp or splendour
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pompous
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English word from Late Latin word pompōsus. See pomp, -ous
Explanation
A pompous person is arrogant or conceited. He'll walk into a party with an inflated ego, ready to tell anyone who will listen that "I'm kind of a big deal." Today we associate the adjective pompous with self-important jerks. But it's actually derived from the Old French pompeux, which meant “stately." And that's why you can also use pompous to describe something with a lot of ceremonial or stately display — in other words, something surrounded by "pomp and circumstance."
Vocabulary lists containing pompous
Flowers for Algernon
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Face It: Selfie Vocab
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More Negative Words to Describe a Person
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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.
Pompous and self-important, it sounded as if the newspaper was really trying to say Without the Washington Post, we’re all screwed.
From Slate • Mar. 1, 2025
Pompous, handshaking Mayor Richard W. Reading professed that all was civic virtue�until he was found guilty of graft.
From Time Magazine Archive
Pompous little President Ledwidge launches a one-man anti-necking campaign by sneaking up on parked cars, yanking co-eds out of back seats.
From Time Magazine Archive
Pompous street criers strode last week through the narrow, vile and crowded thoroughfares of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan.
From Time Magazine Archive
To the bridegroom's palace-threshold, Wind the waving throngs of people; There the wedding feast beginneth, Pompous in the olden fashion.
From Poems and Ballads of Heinrich Heine by Heine, Heinrich
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.
