grandiosity
Americannoun
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the quality of seeming impressive or important in an artificial or deliberately pompous way; pretentiousness.
These are mere bogus revolutionaries, high on the sound of their own voices and the silly grandiosity of their claims.
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the quality of actually being imposing or impressive.
Through the photographer's eyes these sprawling, well-known cities become worlds of extreme beauty, elegance, and grandiosity.
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the quality of being more complicated or elaborate than necessary.
Hockey’s a great sport: gentlemanly and understated, with no fuss or grandiosity.
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Psychiatry. an exaggerated belief in one’s own importance, sometimes reaching delusional proportions, as a symptom of a mental illness such as manic disorder.
Paranoiacs tend to carry a bit of guilt with their grandiosity—a sense of some great transgression that has made them a magnet for universal hostility.
Etymology
Origin of grandiosity
First recorded in 1795–1805; from French grandiosité, from Italian grandiosità, equivalent to grandiose ( def. ) + -ity ( def. )
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.
She tests everyone’s limits, but her grandiosity is something to see.
From Los Angeles Times
Elordi takes over the telling of his tale, often running counter to the presentational grandiosity that a new “Frankenstein” would seem to require.
From Los Angeles Times
The terms all apply to him: "pattern of grandiosity," "fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance," "lacks empathy," "requires excessive admiration."
From Salon
The movie’s square-framed cinematography, too, reminiscent of a staged newsreel, is another subtle touch — one imagines Panh rejecting widescreen as only feeding this evil regime’s view of its own righteous grandiosity.
From Los Angeles Times
He extensively quotes both men's social media posts to "get a full sense of the madness," arguing they're both being consumed by their tendencies "to grandiosity, vindictiveness and paranoia."
From Salon
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.
