'Pretentious' definitions:
Definition of 'pretentious'
(from WordNet)
adjective
Making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction; "a pretentious country house"; "a pretentious fraud"; "a pretentious scholarly edition" [ant: unpretentious]
adjective
Intended to attract notice and impress others; "an ostentatious sable coat" [syn: ostentatious, pretentious] [ant: unostentatious, unpretending, unpretentious]
adjective
(of a display) tawdry or vulgar [syn: ostentatious, pretentious]
Definition of 'Pretentious'
From: GCIDE
- Pretentious \Pre*ten"tious\, a. [Cf. F. pr['e]tentieux. See Pretend.] Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming. -- {Pre*ten"tious*ly}, adv. -- {Pre*ten"tious*ness}, n. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'pretentious'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- affected,
- ambitious,
- arrogant,
- artificial,
- arty,
- aureate,
- bedizened,
- big,
- big-sounding,
- bombastic,
- chichi,
- classy,
- convoluted,
- declamatory,
- elaborate,
- elaborated,
- elevated,
- euphuistic,
- exaggerated,
- extravagant,
- fancy,
- feigned,
- flamboyant,
- flaming,
- flashy,
- flaunting,
- flossy,
- flowery,
- fulsome,
- garish,
- gassy,
- gaudy,
- Gongoresque,
- Gongoristic,
- grandiloquent,
- grandiose,
- grandisonant,
- haughty,
- high and mighty,
- high-flowing,
- high-flown,
- high-flying,
- high-hat,
- high-sounding,
- high-swelling,
- high-toned,
- highfalutin,
- highfaluting,
- histrionic,
- hoity-toity,
- hyperelegant,
- imposing,
- inflated,
- inkhorn,
- insincere,
- Johnsonian,
- la-di-da,
- labyrinthine,
- lexiphanic,
- lofty,
- lurid,
- magniloquent,
- maniere,
- mannered,
- Marinistic,
- meretricious,
- mincing,
- orotund,
- ostentatious,
- overacted,
- overblown,
- overdone,
- overelaborate,
- overelegant,
- overinvolved,
- overnice,
- overrefined,
- overwrought,
- peacockish,
- peacocky,
- pedantic,
- pompous,
- precieuse,
- precieux,
- precious,
- put-on,
- rhetorical,
- sensational,
- sensationalistic,
- sententious,
- showy,
- snobbish,
- snotty,
- sonorous,
- splashy,
- stagy,
- stilted,
- studied,
- superficial,
- swank,
- swollen,
- tall,
- theatrical,
- tony,
- too-too,
- tortuous,
- tumid,
- turgid,
- unnatural,
- utopian,
- vainglorious,
- vaunting,
- visionary,
- windy