pompous
/ˈpɒmpəs/US/ˈpɑmpəs/
pompous adjective: affectedly grand, solemn or self-important.
Adjective
pompous (comparative more pompous, superlative most pompous)
- Affectedly grand, solemn or self-important.
- But man is a Noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths with equal lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of bravery, in the infamy of his nature.1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial
- Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, pompous, and tedious; and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, Miss Samuel did not venture, in her presence, to...
- Synonyms:
- conceited, smug, important, highfalutin, airy, arrogant, chesty, authoritarian, biggity, big-headed
- Antonyms:
- humble, modest, self-effacing
pompous meaning in Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada and Sanskrit
pompous in Bengali
- প্রভাবিতভাবে গৌরবময়, গম্ভীর, আত্মম্ভরী
pompous in Malayalam
- സാഡംബരമായ, അലംകൃതമായ, പൊങ്ങച്ചമുള്ള, ആഡംബരത്തോടെ, ഡംഭോടെ
pompous in Kannada
- ಸ್ವಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಠೆಯ, ಸೊಕ್ಕಿನ, ವೈಭವೋಪೇತ, ಭವ್ಯವಾದ
pompous in Sanskrit
- pompous or showy speech
- उदात्त udātta
More languagesFewer languages
- pompous in Persian
- پرشکوه poršokuh
Examples of pompous in a sentence
- Someone should carjack that pompous jerk and teach him a lesson!
- The student's lexiphanicism is an obvious attempt to appear smart but really only serves to make him look pompous.
- Writers who overload their sentences with nominalizations tend to sound pompous and abstract.
Synonyms of pompous
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- blustery
- turgescent
- boastful
- lordly
- bombastic
- cocky
- disdainful
- domineering
- egotistical
- entitled
- flaunting
- full of oneself
- grandiose
- hankty
- haughty
- high-handed
- high-hat
- high and mighty
- hoity-toity
- holier-than-thou
- hubristic
- hubristical
- imperious
- inflated
- insolent
- la-di-da
- ostentatious
- overbearing
- overweening
- presumptuous
Antonyms
Forms of pompous
| comparative | more pompous |
|---|---|
| superlative | most pompous |
Origin of pompous
From Middle English pompous, from Old French pompeux, pompos, from Late Latin pomposus, from Latin pompa (“pomp”), from Ancient Greek πομπή (pompḗ, “a sending, a solemn procession, pomp”), from πέμπω (pémpō, “to send”), equivalent to pomp + -ous. Doublet of pomposo.
Words formed from pompous
Questions about pompous
- What does pompous mean?
- Pompous means affectedly grand, solemn or self-important.
- What is pompous in Bengali?
- Pompous in Bengali is প্রভাবিতভাবে গৌরবময়, গম্ভীর, আত্মম্ভরী. See Pompous meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is pompous?
- Pompous is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce pompous?
- Pompous is pronounced /ˈpɒmpəs/ (UK).
Words near pompous in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pompous (page history and authors); pompous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pompous (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); pompous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); उदात्त (Sanskrit) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-pompous.wav.
Cite this entry: “pompous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pompous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.