noun
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vain or ostentatious display of dignity or importance
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the quality of being pompous
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ostentatiously lofty style, language, etc
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a pompous action, remark, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of pomposity
1400–50; late Middle English pomposite < Late Latin pompōsitās. See pompous, -ity
Explanation
The noun pomposity means super-sized self-confidence. A person who thinks he or she is better than every else suffers from pomposity — and everyone in that person's life suffers, too. Pomposity, pronounced "pahm-POSS-ih-tee," isn't just for arrogant people. Things can have this unpleasant quality, too. For example, the pomposity of an award ceremony that presents the winners and judges as the most important people who ever lived will leave viewers cold. Language can also be a victim of pomposity — when someone says, "We dined at our beloved little bistro," another person would say, "We ate at our favorite neighborhood joint."
Vocabulary lists containing pomposity
Oliver Twist
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Absalom, Absalom!
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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.
See Examples For:
They won us over with their mild pomposity and aloofness, whereas Rapaport’s annoyance wreaks collateral damage like a chronically unbathed person’s odor assails bystanders.
From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2026
Mr. Dirden speaks with a majestic orotundity that evokes a preacher carrying around an invisible pulpit, and exudes a preening pomposity and the requisite vicious abusiveness toward Lucky.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 29, 2025
Don Wright, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist whose pointed work punctured duplicity and pomposity and resonated with common-sense readers, died on March 24 at his home in Palm Beach, Fla. He was 90.
From New York Times ● Apr. 13, 2024
"Barry Humphries, through his creations, poked and prodded us, exposed pretensions, punctured pomposity, surfaced insecurities, but most of all, made us laugh at ourselves," he wrote.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2023
His first Gymnopedie of 1888, as well as sounding like a long, hot afternoon in the Midi after a liquid lunch, can be seen as a deliberate attempt to debunk pomposity and de-clutter music.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
A humorist and actor, his folksy delivery artfully deflated politicians and pomposities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2025
From time to time, Mr. Leo devoted his column to skewering the conventions and pomposities of journalistic prose.
From Washington Post ● May 13, 2022
In the Persia of the time, you couldn’t speak or write about the Shah openly, so he called him Marjoribanks, a silly name to make fun of pomposities.
From Salon ● Feb. 4, 2013
And Anika Noni Rose seemed to have a better handle on the pomposities of Wendy Scott-Carr.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2011
Whatever its faults may be, it is simple and natural, and its tender little melodies fell pleasantly upon ears too well accustomed to the pomposities of Rameau and his school.
From The Opera A Sketch of the Development of Opera. With full Descriptions of all Works in the Modern Repertory. by J. A. Fuller-Maitland
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.
