English Explanatory Dictionary

pretentious

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others.
  2. Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.

Pronunciation

/pɹɪˈtɛn.t͡ʃəs/ prĭ-tĕnˈ-chəs LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pretentious.wav

Word forms

pretentious more pretentious most pretentious prætentious

Etymology

From French prétentieux, from prétention, from Latin praetēnsus (“false or hypocritical profession”), past participle of praetendō. Note that pretentious is spelled with a ‘t’, unlike related pretense, pretension. This is due to the French spelling: *-sious does not occur as an English suffix, though -sion and -tion both do.

Synonyms

highfalutin affected effete fey recherché hoity-toity overrefined pansified precious pretentious smug stagy stilted theatrical Woosterian

Antonyms

unpretentious humble modest demure formal natural priggish prim prudish puritanical Quakerish

Related words

false pretense pretend pretender pretense pretension pretentiosity fastidious gaudy simpering

Derived words

nonpretentious pretentiously pretentiousness
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
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