pretentious
/pɹɪˈtɛn.ʃəs/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.17 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others.
adj
Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.
Example Sentences
- "Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable."
- "I recall the height of comfort attained by the green-cushioned "first" with starched white antimacassars and a pretentious grey floor mat on which it seemed a sacrilege to stand, as it was embellished with the North Western conception of Britannia, complete with trident."
- "Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics."
- "The station (1840) was originally Cheltenham but the more grandiose Cheltenham Spa since 1925, which feels a bit pretentious as the town has never allowed itself to assume such airs and graces."
- "... the first definite and pretentious attempt to make the wardrobe trunk a commercial possibility ... The new trunk would be exploited direct to the traveling public, and he had the means for a pretentious start."
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.
Origin
- Source language: French