pretentious

• prætentious (rare, pedantic or (esp. self-referentially) humorous)

From French prétentieux, from prétention, from Latin praetēnsus (“false or hypocritical profession”), past participle of praetendō.

Note that pretentious is spelled with a ‘t’, unlike related pretense, pretension. This is due to the French spelling: *-sious does not occur as an English suffix, though -sion and -tion both do.

• IPA^(key): /pɹɪˈtɛn.ʃəs/, /pɹɪˈtɛn.t͡ʃəs/
• enPR: prĭ-tĕnˈ-chəs

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnʃəs

pretentious (comparative more pretentious, superlative most pretentious)

1. Motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others.

   Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.

   • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, pages 703–704:

     I recall the height of comfort attained by the green-cushioned "first" with starched white antimacassars and a pretentious grey floor mat on which it seemed a sacrilege to stand, as it was embellished with the North Western conception of Britannia, complete with trident.

2. Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.

   Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics.

   • 2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 56:

     The station (1840) was originally Cheltenham but the more grandiose Cheltenham Spa since 1925, which feels a bit pretentious as the town has never allowed itself to assume such airs and graces.

3. (obsolete, perhaps incorrect) Marked by pretense (not necessarily false pretense); intent upon success; ambitious.
   • 1917 January, “Season 1917”, in Trunks, Leather Goods, and Umbrellas, volume 39, number 1, page 54:

     ... the first definite and pretentious attempt to make the wardrobe trunk a commercial possibility ... The new trunk would be exploited direct to the traveling public, and he had the means for a pretentious start.

• highfalutin
• See also Thesaurus:arrogant

• unpretentious
• humble
• modest

• “pretentious”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “pretentious”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “pretentious”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• postuterine