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

Posing as cybercriminals, investigators shut down a platform that fueled more than 30 million bogus emails in a single month, they say.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 30, 2026

Posing as recruiters on the online professional networking platform, Chinese spies would initially request paid reports before later soliciting non-public or even classified information.

From Barron's • Mar. 27, 2026

Posing as Kaye, BBC reporter Philippa Goymer arranged to meet him for a "date".

From BBC • Feb. 12, 2026

Posing on the cover of Rolling Stone while wearing almost nothing but a feathered war bonnet was supposed to mark Avery’s national success and celebrate her pride as a member of the Muscogee tribe.

From Los Angeles Times • May 27, 2025

Posing under the trees, on the bench, in the hammock, I balance my camera on various garden objects to get full-length shots of us together.

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed

Related Words

• charade
• cloak
• pretext
• semblance
• veneer