snobbery
Americannoun
-
snobberies
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of snobbery
Explanation
Use the noun snobbery when you talk about someone's habit of treating other people as inferior. If your friend doesn't want to associate with people who have less money than she does, it's proof of her snobbery. Snobbery is an unattractive trait caused by a person's belief that he or she is inherently better than others. Most snobbery has to do with social class and the idea that someone who has more money or went to a fancier school is worthier than someone who doesn't have these advantages. The root of snobbery is snob, which in 1800's British slang meant "person of the lower classes," but changed over time to mean "one who despises those considered inferior."
Vocabulary lists containing snobbery
List 2
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List 10
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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:
If even the once all-powerful Marvel is trying to recapture viewers by positioning itself as haughty and highbrow, there is no doubt snobbery is pushing for the mainstream.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
Instead, it is a quiet study in snobbery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
She describes getting into the prestigious university as "a massive deal" but she found the atmosphere strange and experienced some snobbery about her working class accent.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
Their snobbery is juxtaposed with Carney’s friend and colleague Pepper’s unsettling bluntness and eyeball to eyeball stare.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
My feeling remains, no less than before, that this represents a piece of unthinking snobbery on the part of the Society.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Many previous music-critic snobberies have eroded through the consumerist pluralism of the internet, a broader politics of cultural representation, and a renewed investment in pleasure as the literal least a listener can ask for.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2019
Nonetheless, learning about my boyhood idol’s snobberies and insecurities has left me slightly downcast.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 1, 2017
Like Philip Roth and, more recently, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Ma is unafraid to generalize about her culture and explore its snobberies and social codes.
From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2014
Scholarly though his instincts were he had no snobberies about higher journalism.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 20, 2010
How I used to revel in such bitter little snobberies myself; how eay they were, once.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
