bla·tant

(blāt′nt)

adj.

1. Usage Problem Totally or offensively conspicuous or obtrusive: a blatant lie.

2. Unpleasantly loud and noisy: "There are those who find the trombones blatant and the triangle silly, but both add effective color" (Musical Heritage Review). See Synonyms at vociferous.

[From Latin blatīre, to blab (on the model of words such as rampant).]

bla′tan·cy n.

bla′tant·ly adv.

Usage Note: Blatant and flagrant both attribute conspicuousness and offensiveness to certain acts, but the words differ in emphasis. Blatant means "offensively conspicuous," and thus emphasizes the actor's failure to conceal the act. Flagrant, on the other hand, means "conspicuously offensive," and emphasizes the serious wrongdoing inherent in the offense. Thus many actions, from an infraction of the rules in a football game to a violation of human rights, may be blatant or flagrant, depending on what is being emphasized. If the act is committed with contempt for public scrutiny, it is blatant. If the act seems extreme in its violation of norms, it is flagrant. · Blatant and (to a much lesser extent) flagrant are sometimes used as synonyms of obvious, in contexts where there is no immediate connection to human behavior, as in What surprised us was that they went ahead with the idea in spite of the blatant danger of the approach. This usage has traditionally been considered an error, and it is not surprising, therefore, that most of the Usage Panel dislikes it. In our 2004 survey, only 42 percent accepted the sentence just listed.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

blatancy - the property of being both obvious and offensive; "the blatancy of his attempt to whitewash the crime was unforgivable"

noticeability, noticeableness, obviousness, patency - the property of being easy to see and understand

odiousness, offensiveness, distastefulness - the quality of being offensive

Translations

blatancy

n (= obviousness) → Offensichtlichkeit f; (of injustice, lie also) → Eklatanz f; (of error) → Krassheit f, → Eklatanz f; the blatancy of their disregard for … → ihre unverhohlene or offene Missachtung der …

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He received Philip with a peculiar manner formed by the mingling of his natural blatancy with the subdued air proper to his calling.

View in context

"She deserved it" becomes easier than to have a hard look within and on societal attitudes in which trivialisation of violence on women is an everyday occurrence, and whataboutery after every violent crime by a man is manifested in all its ugly cringe-worthy blatancy. The idea of NO is non-existent when it comes to an interaction with a spouse, a partner or a family member.

When will the violence against Hajra, Sonia, Azma stop in Pakistan?

paralleled by the blatancy of the poem's nonsemantic devices and

The Weight of Words: W. S. Graham's Lyric Poetry

"Violations of religious freedom are increasing globally in scale, depth and blatancy," the manifesto states.

New Website Seeks to Offer Platform for Digital Discussions of Religious Matters

Ayatollah Khamenei drew an example of US's blatancy in actions and rhetoric, and said, "The example of it is that during the last week, the Saudis committed two crimes: attacking a hospital and attacking a school bus with 40 or 50 innocent children on board.

Rouhani Reveals US Made 8 Requests for Bilateral Meeting

The judge told Wolten the attack on the other vulnerable child was "illustrative of your predatory behaviour but also of the fact that you perceived yourself to be invincible, such was the blatancy and audacity of your offending".

Paedophile's rape victim hears attacker laughing at him in disturbing hallucinations; Alan Wolten, 81, was told he may die in prison after raping and molesting two boys

In fact, the blatancy of his intolerance for any opposition has gained international comment.

'Laugh to Keep From Crying': Egyptians Use Memes to Cope with Sisi-owned Elections

Describing the building as "Lina Bo Bardi-esque"--a highly complimentary reference to the prolific Italian-born Brazilian Modernist architect--Ingels tells me, "There's an immediacy and a blatancy to the choice of materials and finishes that ends up working incredibly well."

Border Crossing: Michel Rojkind's collaborative spirit and latest bold-faced building position him to go beyond Mexico

The low quality of political oratory in our day doubtless has a lot to do with the electorate's combined impatience with complexity and taste for blatancy. The phenomenon is not restricted to the United States.

HOW TO TALK LIKE A POLITICIAN

A cavalier disregard for process, over and above the blatancy of lying, may similarly deal the harshest blows to the credibility of the Trump administration.

Back from the brink: truth and trust in the public sphere

(ii) But the blatancy of the Code remains instructive if we want to understand one influential definition of responsible behaviour: to act 'responsibly' is to avoid becoming a burden on the state, or, more particularly, to avoid burdening the allimportant, beleaguered taxpayer.

Introduction: the limits of responsibility

Using real names would have been vindictive but the stories themselves deserved to be told without the blatancy of using real names.

No Man's War: an interview with Angela Ricketts