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Definition of Pretentious
1. Adjective. Making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction. "A pretentious scholarly edition"
Also: Tasteless
Derivative terms: Pretense, Pretentiousness
Antonyms: Unpretentious
2. Adjective. Intended to attract notice and impress others. "An ostentatious sable coat"
Similar to: Flaunty, Flamboyant, Showy, Splashy
Derivative terms: Ostentation, Ostentation, Ostentatiousness, Pretentiousness
Antonyms: Unostentatious
3. Adjective. (of a display) tawdry or vulgar.
Similar to: Tasteless
Derivative terms: Ostentatiousness, Pretentiousness
Definition of Pretentious
1. a. Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming.
Definition of Pretentious
1. Adjective. Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction. ¹
2. Adjective. Ostentatious; intended to impress others. ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Pretentious
1. [adj]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Pretentious
Literary usage of Pretentious
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant: Embracing English, American, and Anglo by Albert Barrère, Charles Godfrey Leland (1890)
"Pinchbeck villas (journalistic), small cheap houses, mostly (in the suburbs of
cities, bearing pretentious names, such as " The Oaks," " The Gables," &c. ..."
2. Dictionary of National Biography by LESLIE. STEPHEN (1892)
"... and is shown by his 'Original Letters and other Royal Authorities,' published
under the pretentious title of 'Memoirs of the ..."
3. Annual Report by Fairmount Park Art Association (1903)
"... or has been less overawed by academic conventions, or the dictation of
pretentious patronage. He has delivered his own personal message fearlessly and ..."
4. The English Historical Review by Mandell Creighton, Justin Winsor, Samuel Rawson Gardiner, Reginald Lane Poole, John Goronwy Edwards (1893)
"In other respects the book offers little that is new, in spite of the rather
pretentious additional title which, like one of Balzac's or M. Zola's novels, ..."
5. The Bookman (1903)
"... class would consist of worn- out lords and useless mistresses, who would be
as servile under the new conditions as they were pretentious under the old. ..."
6. Narrative and Critical History of America by Justin Winsor (1889)
"... or Ethnological Researches (Philad., 1854, 1859, 1871), met with a divided
reception; the conservative theologians called it pretentious and false, ..."
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