How to Use pretentious in a Sentence

pretentious

adjective
Definition of pretentiousnext
Synonyms for pretentiousnext
  • The houses in the neighborhood are large and pretentious.
  • But one girl saw the stone and thought it a pretentious thing to do.
    — Louise Erdrich, The New Yorker, 2 Sep. 2019
  • That doesn’t change the fact that those pretentious snobs can make some of the greatest works in the world.
    — Addie Morfoot, Variety, 12 Nov. 2022
  • These wooly, small- to medium-sized pups aren't pretentious in the least.
    — Katarina Avendano, Good Housekeeping, 25 Aug. 2022
  • These guys weren’t pretentious, and there weren’t these walls.
    — Brian McCollum, Detroit Free Press, 17 Apr. 2022
  • Notice that as always the crime, the great shame, is the social one, to seem pretentious.
    — John Jeremiah Sullivan, GQ, 28 Jan. 2018
  • Singing sweet tunes about wanting to be a young adult again is a bit pretentious.
    — cleveland.com, 25 Aug. 2017
  • Even our waiter — who was so over the whole thing — called it pretentious.
    — Mike Sutter, ExpressNews.com, 2 Jan. 2020
  • The vibe of this full moon is talkative, loud, and even pretentious.
    — Sophie Saint Thomas, Allure, 25 Apr. 2022
  • Does it get much less pretentious than gooey cheese curds?
    — Griffin Jackson, chicagotribune.com, 6 Oct. 2017
  • Pop culture had, in the past, spoofed and satirized the pretentious wine drinker.
    — Alex Abad-Santos, Vox, 17 July 2019
  • This is all sorts of pretentious wannabee art-house nonsense at this point.
    — Erik Kain, Forbes, 9 Feb. 2024
  • This will strike some of you as very, very pretentious and self-indulgent, but bear with me.
    — Momus, WIRED, 16 Jan. 2007
  • If that’s not the most pretentious thing that anybody’s ever said.
    — Andrew Unterberger, Billboard, 25 Oct. 2022
  • There’s nothing pretentious or high and mighty about him.
    — Washington Post, 18 Nov. 2021
  • Bottles range from about a pound at the light end to more than two pounds for those pretentious behemoths.
    — Washington Post, 15 Oct. 2021
  • The Beatles were too cheery, and Prince seemed pretentious.
    — David Marchese, New York Times, 18 Mar. 2022
  • Everyone wants to be cool, no one wants to be pretentious.
    — Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 5 Apr. 2018
  • To that end, each item is crafted by hand, without pretentious airs or hefty price tags.
    — Tribune News Service, cleveland, 29 Dec. 2020
  • Ben gaslights the hell out of Ana, but the weird pretentious writer from earlier believes her.
    — Emma Specter, Vogue, 18 Mar. 2022
  • If all of this sounds dreadfully pretentious to you, well, step off.
    — Jason Pettigrew, SPIN, 17 Aug. 2022
  • The first thing is that even though these Roman numerals are sort of pretentious, using them is a lot of fun.
    — Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2020
  • At after-service drinks, Will asks Tess out for a day of burgers and a pretentious movie — a real date in the daylight!
    — refinery29.com, 21 May 2018
  • With Colbert at the helm, the Emmy telecast was far less pretentious than usual.
    — Hal Boedeker, OrlandoSentinel.com, 17 Sep. 2017
  • Just the naming of the coffee cups and the pretentious nonsense behind so many obvious things. .
    — Ross McCammon, Men's Health, 31 Jan. 2023
  • Her goal is to make wine less pretentious and more approachable.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Sep. 2019
  • Bennett is the most pretentious of the bunch: a Harvard graduate showing up in a Rolls Royce and wearing a white scarf.
    — David Oliver, USA TODAY, 14 Oct. 2020
  • Too big, too pretentious and then there is the near windowless media bunker.
    — John Cherwa, latimes.com, 29 Sep. 2017
  • If this sounds both ambitious and pretentious to you . . .
    — Terry Teachout, WSJ, 21 Oct. 2021
  • The series has always struck me as more pretentious than profound.
    — Kristi Turnquist, OregonLive.com, 4 June 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pretentious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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