puffery

American  

[puhf-uh-ree] / ˈpʌf ə ri /

noun

plural

pufferies

1. undue or exaggerated praise.

2. publicity, acclaim, etc., that is full of undue or exaggerated praise.

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puffery British  

/ ˈpʌfərɪ /

noun

1. informal exaggerated praise, esp in publicity or advertising

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Etymology

Origin of puffery

First recorded in 1730–35; puff (in the sense “to praise with exaggeration”) + -ery

Explanation

When you overdo the praise in order to flatter someone, that's puffery. It's probably puffery if your sister tells you you're the most attractive, smartest, kindest person she knows — right before asking you to loan her 50 dollars. If you exaggerate compliments in order to get something in return, you've engaged in puffery. In addition to this common usage, puffery is also an actual legal term meaning "an exaggeration or statement that no reasonable person would take as factual." So if a furniture company claims in a TV ad that one night's sleep on their mattresses will raise your IQ by 20 points, you can be pretty sure it's puffery.

Example Sentences

Ms. Coppola’s approach doesn’t even rise to the level of the journalism in Vogue, which itself gets lots of puffery.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 19, 2026

Customers are expected to be smart enough to recognise that ads will often contain a certain amount of "puffery".

From BBC • Sep. 2, 2023

Gorsuch was trolling here, wielding Norfolk Southern’s own promotional puffery against it.

From Slate • Jun. 28, 2023

Of course, this kind of puffery was pumped by real estate interests, railroads, newspapers, movie studios and politicians.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2023

How glad I am to find that you partake of my great aversion to the sort of puffery belonging to literature.

From What I Remember, Volume 2 by Trollope, Thomas Adolphus