pretentious

adjective/prɪˈtɛnʃəs/

Frequency rank: #10,980 of 20,003 in the WORDED list (wordfreq data)

Meaning

Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, or culture than one actually has.

Illustration for the English word “pretentious”

Example sentence

Some critics found his writing style overly pretentious and hard to enjoy.

Synonyms & related words

More words in ranks 10,901–11,000