pretentious

[pri-ten-shuhs]

adjective

1. characterized by assumption of dignity or importance, especially when exaggerated or undeserved.

   a pretentious, self-important waiter.

   Synonyms: pompous

2. making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious.

   Synonyms: showy

3. full of pretense or pretension; having no factual basis; false.

pretentious

/ prɪˈtɛnʃəs /

adjective

1. making claim to distinction or importance, esp undeservedly

2. having or creating a deceptive outer appearance of great worth; ostentatious

Other Word Forms

• pretentiously adverb
• pretentiousness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pretentious¹

First recorded in 1835–45; earlier pretensious; equivalent to pretense + -ious

Synonym Study

See bombastic. See grandiose.

Example Sentences

A pretentious young critic for the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma who never takes off his dark glasses, even at the movies, and rarely stops smoking, he is aching to make a feature of his own.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The writing is muddled at times by a certain narrative slippage wherein one cannot tell whether the biting observations about clueless classmates and pretentious doctors come from Alice or Mr. deBoer.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Ms. King seeds her love story with engaging dialogue and literary references that are never pretentious or gratuitous.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“It’s a little pretentious to think that you’re only making a film for you,” he notes.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

An outing in Blue - a "pretentious, self-conscious, literary Western without much zest", according to one critic - didn't help.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• arty 
• exaggerated 
• grandiose 
• hollow 
• overblown 
• pompous 
• showy 
• stilted 
• turgid