pretentious
Use the adjective pretentious as a way to criticize people who try to act like they are more important or knowledgeable than they really are.
You might not be surprised to learn that pretentious is related to the word pretend, and it is an adjective that fits the bill for describing someone who's only concerned with making an impressive appearance. If you don't want to be accused of being pretentious, just act naturally and don't put on airs!
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making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction“a pretentious country house”“a pretentious fraud”“a pretentious scholarly edition”synonyms:artyshowily imitative of art or artistsjumped-up(British informal) upstartnouveau-riche, parvenu, parvenue, upstartcharacteristic of someone who has risen economically or socially but lacks the social skills appropriate for this new positionsententiousabounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizingsesquipedaliangiven to the overuse of long wordstastelesslacking aesthetic or social taste
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intended to attract notice and impress otherssynonyms: ostentatiousflauntyinclined to flaunt
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(of a display) tawdry or vulgarsynonyms: ostentatioustastelesslacking aesthetic or social taste
- MLA
- APA
- Chicago
pretentious / portentous
Vocabulary lists containing pretentious
Looking to build your vocabulary? Then practice this list of 100 "top words" — the kind that used to be tested on the SAT before 2016. If you're a high school student prepping for the SAT, check out Vocabulary.com's Roadmap to the SAT, which focuses on the vocabulary you'll need to ace today's SAT test.
When tragedy strikes, Esperanza's family has to leave their ranch in Mexico and move to a farmworkers' camp during the Great Depression.
Where there's a will, there's a motive to solve a murder. When eccentric millionaire Sam Westing dies, he leaves instructions for sixteen people to come to the reading of his will. With a fortune on the line, Westing's death becomes a puzzle they'll race to solve.