adjective
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gaudy, flashy, or ostentatious
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making a brilliant or imposing display
Synonym Usage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of showy
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:
It verifies Gloria’s singing talent and proves a perfect match for her showy, cagey persona: the love child of Marlene Dietrich and Sally Bowles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
This year the clamor is louder, more aggressive, and tinged with showy economic threats.
From Slate ● Jul. 21, 2026
The month of July kicked off in New York City with two showy stories of couples disrupting life to celebrate their love.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
It’s been a while since the University of Chicago has had a showy run like the one now happening in men’s basketball.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
The veteran couples never did anything showy in public, going about in a sensible sort of way, like a mother and father might do in a normal family.
From "Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Yes: Alcaraz is the faster, showier player, capable of mad sprints to pull out improbable winners, but Sinner’s developed real range.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 7, 2025
Maybe it’s happiest tucked into a cast-iron skillet, going golden and jammy while the showier types preen in their baskets.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2025
However, Stone has the showier role as Poor Things' charming protagonist Bella Baxter, while Gladstone's dignified and resilient Molly Kyle in Flower Moon is a more understated part that enjoys considerably less screen time.
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2024
Spacek has the showier role as the seething, vengeful Ruth, a lobster fisherman’s Lady Macbeth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2023
Occasionally, flowers in themselves inconspicuous are surrounded by showy leaves or bracts which take the place of the petals of the showier flowers in attracting insect visitors.
From Elements of Structural and Systematic Botany For High Schools and Elementary College Courses by Douglas Houghton Campbell
The biggest music stars and the showiest productions are enjoying broad popularity right now.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
In this sense, Youngelson’s film is not formally spectacular and doesn’t necessarily pack the showiest emotional wallop.
From New York Times ● Jun. 22, 2023
Naturally, he doesn’t stand a chance against Butler and Fraser, the category’s two showiest contenders; neither, it seems, do Farrell and Nighy, whom I’d rank a close second and third.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2023
Liquids are a compelling reason to explore the new restaurant, which features some winning cocktails, the showiest of which, To Mule or Not to Mule, arrives in a horn-shaped glass.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 5, 2022
Everyone, meanwhile, appears to be blending into a classless crowd, shedding the showiest kinds of high-status clothes in favor of a jeans-and-sweatsuit informality.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
