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.
It was also a rebuke to the idea of grandiosity, in which inflated self-regard amounts to a distorted relationship with reality.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026
Take the grandiosity of his ascent to the role, in which CBS News put forward a manifesto of the newsroom’s guiding principles.
From Salon • Jan. 10, 2026
She tests everyone’s limits, but her grandiosity is something to see.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 7, 2025
Psychiatry’s diagnostic manual, the DSM-5, outlines nine behavioral patterns involving grandiosity, empathy, and a person’s need for admiration, of which a patient must meet at least five for a formal diagnosis of NPD.
From Slate • Aug. 5, 2024
The fits of energy, tipping into rage and grandiosity, came often and more fiercely, and the sweeping undertow of grief that followed was just as strong.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
