posing

¹ American  

[poh-zing] / ˈpoʊ zɪŋ /

noun

1. the act or practice of assuming a particular attitude or stance, especially with the hope of impressing others.

   The new website aims to strip away the pretentious posing of wine connoisseurs, inviting users to “tell us what tastes good to you!”

2. the act or practice of falsely representing oneself.

   Under all his posing as an honest reporter, his real purpose is to defend a barbarous regime.

3. the act of assuming or holding a particular physical position, or of placing someone else in such a position, as for a portrait or photograph.

   She liked to paint women and children, and the natural posing of her subjects is still unsurpassed.

4. the act of putting forward, stating, or suggesting something, as a question, hypothesis, matter for consideration, etc..

   Classroom strategies like cooperative learning and the posing of open-ended questions can encourage thinking and discussion.

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adjective

1. falsely representing oneself, or assuming a particular attitude or stance in the hope of impressing others.

   I don’t fit in—everyone else in that place is a filmmaker, an "edgy" magazine journalist, or a posing hipster.

2. assuming a particular physical position, as for a portrait or photograph.

   I love how real and natural these images are—no posing tourists, just scenic beauty on its own.

posing ² American  

[poh-zing] / ˈpoʊ zɪŋ /

adjective

1. baffling, perplexing, or vexing; difficult.

   The command to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” has within it the most posing challenge for you and me—learning to love ourselves.

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Other Word Forms

• posingly
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of posing¹

First recorded in 1850–55; pos(e) ¹ ( def. ) + -ing ¹ ( def. ) for the noun senses; pos(e) ¹ ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. ) for the adjective senses

Origin of posing²

pos(e) ² ( def. ) + -ing ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

posing

During air raids, GPS jamming means phone navigation apps often don’t work properly, posing a problem for many taxi drivers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

The number of hours a falcon has flown at Ford Motor’s Hermosillo, Mexico plant after pigeons besieged the facility, posing a health risk to workers and disrupting daily operations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

Claims that Canadian-Haitian writer Thelyson Orelien used AI tools to write his best-selling debut novel are rocking the French literary world and posing questions about how AI can be detected.

From Barron's ● Sep. 25, 2026

A growing number of prison staff have told the BBC that rules are being stretched or broken to accommodate additional inmates, potentially posing health and safety risks.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

And it depended almost entirely on the geographic and demographic location of the person posing the question.

From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis

Related Words

• charade
• cloak
• pretext
• semblance
• veneer