pretentious
adjective
1. creating an appearance of undeserved importance or distinction.
- a pretentious country house
- a pretentious fraud
- a pretentious scholarly edition
Similar word(s): arty, grandiloquent, overblown, pompous, pontifical, portentous, grandiose, hifalutin, highfalutin, highfaluting, inflated, parvenu, parvenue, upstart, sententious, sesquipedalian, tasteless
2. intended to attract notice and impress others; ostentatious.
Similar word(s): flaunty, flamboyant, showy, splashy, ostentatious
3. (of a display) tawdry or vulgar
Similar word(s): tasteless, ostentatious
Sentences with pretentious as an adjective:
- Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics.
- Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.