Word.ws English Dictionary

altiloquent

altiloquent adjective: pompous, or pretentious in speech.

Adjective

altiloquent (comparative more altiloquent, superlative most altiloquent)

  1. Pompous, or pretentious in speech
    • [T]hey listened, dazzle-eyed- secretly making lists- to grandly romantic trash: bad poetry, stupid theology- altiloquent designs in the empty air.1976, John Gardner, Jason and Medeia, Ballantine Books
    • He remembered that the politeness seemed too elaborate, too florid, altiloquent to the extent of insincerity.1921, Holman Day, All Wool Morrison, Kessinger Publishing

Forms of altiloquent

comparativemore altiloquent
superlativemost altiloquent

Origin of altiloquent

From Medieval Latin altiloquus, from altus (“high, tall”) and -loquus (“speaking”).

Questions about altiloquent

What does altiloquent mean?
Altiloquent means pompous, or pretentious in speech.
What part of speech is altiloquent?
Altiloquent is an adjective.

Words near altiloquent in the dictionary

  1. altigraph
  2. altigraphs
  3. altilik
  4. altiliks
  5. altiloquence
  6. altiloquent
  7. Altimari
  8. Altimaris
  9. altimeter
  10. altimeters
  11. altimetre

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: altiloquent (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “altiloquent.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/altiloquent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.