From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pretentious \Pre*ten"tious\, adjective [Cf. F. pr['e]tentieux. See {Pretend}.] Full of pretension; disposed to lay claim to more than is one's; presuming; assuming. -- {Pre*ten"tious*ly}, adverb -- {Pre*ten"tious*ness}, noun
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: making claim to or creating an appearance of (often undeserved) importance or distinction; "a pretentious country house"; "a pretentious fraud"; "a pretentious scholarly edition" [ant: {unpretentious}]
2: intended to attract notice and impress others; "an ostentatious sable coat" [syn: {ostentatious}] [ant: {unostentatious}]
3: of a display that is tawdry or vulgar [syn: {ostentatious}, {kitsch}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
114 Moby Thesaurus words for "pretentious": Gongoresque, Gongoristic, Johnsonian, Marinistic, affected, ambitious, arrogant, artificial, arty, aureate, bedizened, big, big-sounding, bombastic, chichi, classy, convoluted, declamatory, elaborate, elaborated, elevated, euphuistic, exaggerated, extravagant, fancy, feigned, flamboyant, flaming, flashy, flaunting, flossy, flowery, fulsome, garish, gassy, gaudy, grandiloquent, grandiose, grandisonant, haughty, high and mighty, high-flowing, high-flown, high-flying, high-hat, high-sounding, high-swelling, high-toned, highfalutin, highfaluting, histrionic, hoity-toity, hyperelegant, imposing, inflated, inkhorn, insincere, la-di-da, labyrinthine, lexiphanic, lofty, lurid, magniloquent, maniere, mannered, meretricious, mincing, orotund, ostentatious, overacted, overblown, overdone, overelaborate, overelegant, overinvolved, overnice, overrefined, overwrought, peacockish, peacocky, pedantic, pompous, precieuse, precieux, precious, put-on, rhetorical, sensational, sensationalistic, sententious, showy, snobbish, snotty, sonorous, splashy, stagy, stilted, studied, superficial, swank, swollen, tall, theatrical, tony, too-too, tortuous, tumid, turgid, unnatural, utopian, vainglorious, vaunting, visionary, windy
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