Pretentious

Definition: Pretentious

Pretentious

Adjective

1. Making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction; "a pretentious country house"; "a pretentious fraud"; "a pretentious scholarly edition".

2. Intended to attract notice and impress others; "an ostentatious sable coat".

3. Of a display that is tawdry or vulgar.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "pretentious" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1660. (references)

Synonyms: Pretentious

Affectation

Adjective: affected, full of affectation, pretentious, pedantic, stilted, stagy, theatrical, big-sounding, ad captandum; canting, insincere.

Boasting

Adjective: boasting; Verb: magniloquent, flaming, Thrasonic, stilted, gasconading, braggart, boastful, pretentious, soi-disant; vainglorious; (conceited); highfalutin, highfaluting; spread-eagle.

Ostentation

Adjective: ostentatious, showy, dashing, pretentious; janty, jaunty; grand, pompous, palatial; high-sounding; turgid; (big-sounding); gairish, garish; gaudy, gaudy as a butterfly, gaudy as a tulip; flaunting, flashing, flaming, glittering; gay; (ornate).

Undueness

Improper; unmeet, unfit, unbefitting, unseemly; unbecoming, misbecoming; seemless; contra bonos mores; not the thing, out of the question, not to be thought of; preposterous, pretentious, would-be.

Vanity

Self-satisfied, self-confident, self-sufficient, self-flattering, self-admiring, self-applauding, self-glorious, self-opinionated; entente; (wrongheaded); wise in one's own conceit, pragmatical, overwise, pretentious, priggish; egotistic, egotistical; soi-disant; (boastful); arrogant.

Crosswords: Pretentious

That's a pretentious way of saying I'm unemployed at the moment (American in Paris, An; writing credit: Alan Jay Lerner)

All the time you used to talk to me about witchcraft and darkness and the like - I just thought you were being pretentious. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer)

You pretentious swing-town twit (Get Over It; writing credit: R. Lee Fleming Jr.)

I found it a pretentious mishmash about appearance and reality (Walking Shadow; writing credit: Robert B. Parker;)

It looks like something Kandinsky threw up on. What? Dennis Miller's gone, somebody's got to make pretentious semi-obscure references (She Spies; writing credit: Ron Osborn; Josh Appelbaum)

You see that I am silly, and pretentious and a freak (Rescue Me; performing artist: Madonna)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• 100 Pretentious Nursery Rhymes (reference)

• 100 Pretentious Proverbs (reference)

• 101 Pretentious Hors D'Oeuvres (reference)

• Pretentious Young Ladies (reference)

• The goof : a pretentious novel and an embarrassing exercise in cheese fetishism (reference)

  (more book examples)

Music

• At the risk of sounding pretentious (reference)

• Pretentious (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The famous Russell Bros. in the pretentious oddity, Maids to order by Frank Dumont and Wm. F. Carrol. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Beginning with "pretentious": pretentious-looking.

Ending with "pretentious": non-pretentious, often-pretentious.

Albanian

për t'u dukur (doggy, for effect, ostentatious), me pretendime. (various references)

Arabic 

‏طموح (ambition, ambitious, aspirant, aspiration, careerist, fly high, goal, pretension, pretentiousness), ‏رنان (metallic, orotund, pompous, puffy, resonant, ringing, sonorous, sounding, swelling, vibrant). (various references)

Bulgarian 

претенциозен (bumptious, choosy, elaborate, fanciful, fastidious, gingerly, high-toned, overblown, showy, squeamish, studied, swanky), превзет (affected, cute, flamboyant, fussy, glossy, histrionic, lackadaisical, mannered, mincing, minikin, namby-pamby, nice, niminy-piminy, old-maidish, pansy, precious, pretty, pretty-pretty, priggish, prim, prissy, pseudo, recherche, schoolmistressy, sidy, snobbish, stuffy). (various references)

Czech

snobský (highbrow, snobbish), domýšlivý (arrogant, assuming, conceited, haughty, high and mighty, perky, small beer, smug, snotty, uppish, upstage, vain). (various references)

Dutch

ostentatief, opzichtig. (various references)

Esperanto

parada. (various references)

Farsi 

پرمدعا, پرجلوه (Gaily, Loud, Resplendent, Showy), پرادعاومتظاهر. (various references)

Finnish

vaatelias (exacting, presumptuous), suuriluuloinen, suurilukuisuus. (various references)

French

prétentieux, imaginaire. (various references)

German

anspruchsvoll (advanced, ambitious, arrogant, challenging, demanding, discriminating, exacting, exactingly, fastidious, highbrow, nice, selective, sophisticated, up-market). (various references)

Greek 

ξιπασμένοσ (above oneself, cocky, conceited, consequential, stuck up, uppish, vain), ξιπασμένος (pompous, vain), εξεζητημένοσ (dandified, farfetched, mannered, precious), απαιτητικόσ (exacting, exigent, stickler for). (various references)

Hebrew 

ימר� י (ambitious, highfaluting, overweening). (various references)

Hungarian

nagyhangú (blatant, clamorous, claptrap, grandiloquent, mouthy, oratorical, rotund), követelődző (exigent, shrill), elbizakodott (cock-sure, consequential, overweening, perky, self-complacent, self-conceited, self-confident, self-important, stuck-up, uppity). (various references)

Italian

pretenzioso (assumptive), immaginario (fanciful, fictitious, fictive, imaginary, notional, visionary). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

事事しい (bombastic, exaggerated), 事々しい (bombastic, exaggerated), 小賢しい (clever, crafty, cunning, shrewd). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

�"ざかしい (clever, crafty, cunning, shrewd), �"と�"としい (bombastic, exaggerated). (various references)

Manx

ro-aggyrtagh. (various references)

Pig Latin

etentiouspray.(various references)

Portuguese

pretensioso (assuming, assumptive, bounder, bumptious, chesty, cocksure, cocksy, cocky, conceited, donnish, exquisite, goody, gooey, hoity-toity, la-di-da, orotund, prig, priggish, select, showy, snob, snooty, square-toed, swanky), presumido (assuming, cock-a-hoop, cockalorum, fop, immodest, overweening, presumed, presuming, presumptuous, priggish, proud, proud-spirited, self-satisfied, sidy, snooty, square-toed, swanky), vaidoso (cockalorum, conceited, frivolous, grand, overweening, presumptuous, proud, proud-spirited, self-satisfied, uppish, vain, vainglorious), exibicionista (exhibitionist), deparada, afetado (affected, bijou, conceited, coxcombical, dandified, dollish, far-fetched, finical, foppish, forced, fulsome, mannered, miminy-piminy, niminy-piminy, pompous, precious, prim, scenic, scenical, smug, stilted, theatrical, wiredrawn). (various references)

Romanian

pretenţios (affected, cavilling, choosey, exacting, exigent, fastidious, finical, important, inkhorn, particular, prim, puffy, sophomoric), snob (dude, flunkey, high-brow, snob, squirt), arogant (arrogant, arrogantly, assuming, assumptive, haughtily, haughty, high and mighty, lordly, overbearing, overbearingly, overweening, perky, supercilious). (various references)

Russian 

много о себе возомнивший, претенциозный (ambitious, flatulent). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

pretenciozan (cockalorum, highfaluting), uobražen (assuming, bighead, conceited, imaginary, overweening, presuming, supercilious, uppish). (various references)

Spanish

pretensioso (artsy-craftsy, Arty, arty-crafty, conceited, overblown, presumptuous), pretencioso (airy, artsy-craftsy, Arty, arty-crafty, conceited, exacting, exactingly, overblown, presumptuous), presuntuoso (bumptious, cocksure, conceited, dasher, overweening, pontifical, presuming, presumptuous, upstart), presumido (attitudinizer, boastful, cocksure, conceited, hoity toity, pompous, poseur, presumptuous, prig, priggish, self-assertive, self-conceited, self-important, show off, smug, snooty, stuck up, vain, vainglorious), engreido (imaginary), cursi (affected, camp, corny, flashy, genteel, loud, posh, showy, tacky, tawdry). (various references)

Swedish

anspråksfull (Fay). (various references)

Turkish

yüksekten atan (tub-thumping), kendini beğenmiş (arrogant, assuming, bighead, bigheaded, bumptious, cavalier, chesty, cocky, conceited, egotistical, haughty, high hat, high-flown, high-flying, hoity toity, hoity-toity, holier-than-thou, important, insufferable, jackanapes, jumped-up, mugwump, overweening, pompous, prig, priggish, self sufficient, self-important, self-opinionated, self-righteous, smug, Sniffy, snooty, snotty, stuck up, stuffed shirt, stuffy, supercilious, swelled head, swollen-headed, taffy-nosed, toffee-nosed, toffy-nosed, uppish, uppity, upstage, vain), iddialı (artsy, assertive, disputed), gösterişçi (faker, ham, raffish, show off, showy, swanky). (various references)

Ukrainian

претензійний (ambitious, artsy-craftsy, arty-crafty, attitudinizing, rococo), показний (affected, catchpenny, conspicuous, flashy, imposing, meretricious, orchidaceous, ostensible, ostensive, ostentatious, portly, presentable, showy, specious, sporty, stagey, stagy). (various references)

Vietnamese 

tự phụ (bumptious, cocksy, cocky, conceited, coxy, presuming, presumptuous, self-conceited), kiêu căng (assuming, hand, haughty, high, high-minded, high-toned, proud, proud-hearted, proudly, proud-spirited, pround-stomached), khoe khoang (boast, flauntingly, flaunty, ostentatious, rodomontade, swanky, tall, vaunting). (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "pretentious": pretentiously, pretentiousness, pretentiousnesses. (additional references)

Words ending with "pretentious": unpretentious. (additional references)

Words containing "pretentious": unpretentiously, unpretentiousness, unpretentiousnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Pretentious" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: pertentious, prententious, pretencious, pretenious, pretensious, pretentioius, pretentions, pretentios, pretentouis, pretentous, pretentsious, pretntious, prretentious, Prudentius. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-1 letter: pirouettes.

-2 letters: entrepots, entropies, eruptions, interpose, outpreens, outsprint, pinsetter, pirouette, potteries, preunites, printouts, proustite, tenorites.

-3 letters: entrepot, eruption, esurient, insetter, interest, isoprene, nepotist, noisette, oneriest, outpreen, outspent, outsteer, outstrip, penuries, petuntse, pioneers, poetiser, poetries, pointers, porniest, portents, postteen, potteens, poutiest, pretties, preunite, printout, proettes, proteins, pruinose, puttiers, resupine, retinues, reunites, roupiest, routines, runtiest.

+2 letters: perpetuations, pretentiously, superfetation, unpretentious.

+3 letters: counterpickets, supercontinent, superfetations.

+4 letters: counterstepping, importunateness, pretentiousness, repetitiousness, supercontinents, unpretentiously.

+5 letters: counterpetitions, postresurrection.