adj · neutral
pretentious
/prɪˈtenʃəs/pre·TEN·tious
Band 6-7speakingtask2
trying to appear more important or clever than you really are, often in an annoying way
Examples
“The gallery looked pretentious with its overpriced art and pompous descriptions.”
“He sounded pretentious when he kept using obscure words.”
“Some restaurants are pretentious without the food to match.”
Band 8 sentence
“The book's tone felt pretentious, prioritising ornate vocabulary over clear argumentation.”
Collocations
- sound pretentious
- pretentious restaurant
- pretentious language
Word family
pretentiousness npretentiously advpretension n
Common mistakes
He is pretentious person.→He is a pretentious person.
pretentious about→pretentious
Say it for a higher band
5showy→6ostentatious→7+pretentious
Synonyms
showy
pompous
Easily confused
pretend
“She pretended to know the answer even though she did not.”
Related words
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In -ous
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