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pretentious

   Also found in: Wikipedia 0.04 sec.
pre·ten·tious  (pr-tnshs)
adj.
1. Claiming or demanding a position of distinction or merit, especially when unjustified.
2. Making or marked by an extravagant outward show; ostentatious. See Synonyms at showy.
pre·tentious·ly adv.
pre·tentious·ness n.
pretentious
Adjective
1. making (unjustified) claims to special merit or importance: many critics thought her work and ideas pretentious and empty
2. vulgarly showy; ostentatious: a family restaurant with no pretentious furnishing
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.pretentious - making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction; "a pretentious country house"; "a pretentious fraud"; "a pretentious scholarly edition"
tasteless - lacking aesthetic or social taste
unpretentious - lacking pretension or affectation; "an unpretentious country church"; "her quiet unpretentious demeanor"
2.pretentious - intended to attract notice and impress others; "an ostentatious sable coat"
ostentatious
3.pretentious - (of a display) tawdry or vulgar
ostentatious
tasteless - lacking aesthetic or social taste
pretentious
adjective affected, mannered, exaggerated, pompous, assuming, hollow, inflated, extravagant, high-flown, flaunting, grandiose, conceited, showy, ostentatious, snobbish, puffed up, bombastic, specious, grandiloquent, vainglorious, high-sounding, highfalutin (informal) overambitious, arty-farty (informal) magniloquent << OPPOSITE unpretentious
Translations
pretentious [prɪˈtɛnʃəs] adj → pretencioso
pretentious [prɪˈtɛnʃəs] adj → prétentieux/euse
pretentious [prɪˈtɛnʃəs] adj → anmaßend
pretentious [prɪˈtɛnʃəs] adj → pretenzioso/a


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? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
She sold all her property excepting the farm of Toucques and the farm of Geffosses, the income of which barely amounted to 5,000 francs; then she left her house in Saint-Melaine, and moved into a less pretentious one which had belonged to her ancestors and stood back of the market-place.
A Simple Soul by Flaubert, Gustave View in context
Hargrave; she is a hard, pretentious, worldly-minded woman.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte, Anne View in context
They flanked opposite ends of the house and were probably architectural absurdities, redeemed in a measure indeed by not being wholly disengaged nor of a height too pretentious, dating, in their gingerbread antiquity, from a romantic revival that was already a respectable past.
Turn Of The Screw by James, Henry View in context
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