PRETENTIOUS

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does pretentious mean? 

• PRETENTIOUS (adjective)
  The adjective PRETENTIOUS has 3 senses:

1. making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction
2. intended to attract notice and impress others
3. of a display that is tawdry or vulgar

  Familiarity information: PRETENTIOUS used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PRETENTIOUS (adjective)

Meaning:

Making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction

Context examples:

a pretentious country house / a pretentious fraud / a pretentious scholarly edition

Similar:

sesquipedalian (given to the overuse of long words)

sententious (abounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing)

nouveau-riche; parvenu; parvenue; upstart (characteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new position)

jumped-up ((British informal) upstart)

high-flown; high-sounding; inflated (pretentious (especially with regard to language or ideals))

grandiose; hifalutin; highfalutin; highfaluting; hoity-toity; la-di-da (affectedly genteel)

grandiloquent; overblown; pompous; pontifical; portentous (puffed up with vanity)

artsy-craftsy; arty-crafty (pretentiously artistic; cloyingly charming)

arty (showily imitative of art or artists)

Also:

tasteless (lacking aesthetic or social taste)

Antonym:

unpretentious (lacking pretension or affectation)

Meaning:

Intended to attract notice and impress others

Synonyms:

ostentatious; pretentious

Context example:

an ostentatious sable coat

Similar:

flaunty (inclined to flaunt)

showy; splashy (marked by ostentation but often tasteless)

Meaning:

Of a display that is tawdry or vulgar

Synonyms:

kitsch; ostentatious; pretentious

Similar:

tasteless (lacking aesthetic or social taste)