Synonyms for pretentious
- adjective
Most common
All synonyms
Adjective
1. Pompous
pompous, highfalutin, ostentatious, hoity-toity, snobbish, arrogant, stilted, pedantic, presumptuous, supercilious, bombastic, vainglorious, effete, grandiose, haughty, tasteless, overblown, high-sounding, showy, garish, gaudy, flamboyant
Other
Definitions
- adj. 1
Motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others.
Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.
Related words
- Word family
- pretentiousness pretend pretender pretense pretension pretentiosity
- Is a kind of
- artificial canting foppish insincere overdone
Example sentences
- pompous It's much too pompous for such a trivial thing.
- ostentatious Tom wants to build an ostentatious and smart house.
- arty Movies by Greenaway are all noticeably arty.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| pretentious | steady | |
| pompous | rising | |
| ostentatious | rising | |
| highfalutin | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- arty2
- 5 letters
- showy2, gaudy2
- 6 letters
- garish2, effete2
- 7 letters
- pompous2, haughty2, stilted2
- 8 letters
- arrogant3, pedantic3, snobbish2
- 9 letters
- grandiose3, tasteless2, overblown3, bombastic3
- 10 letters
- flamboyant3
- 11 letters
- highfalutin4, sententious
- 12 letters
- presumptuous4, ostentatious4, supercilious5, vainglorious
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (arty2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- prétentieux
- Italiano
- pretenzioso
- Español
- pretencioso
- Deutsch
- eingebildet
- Català
- pretensiós