How to use pretentious in a sentence

25 example sentences · adjective

Pretentious means motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others. Example: “Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.”

Examples of pretentious by meaning

adjectiveMotivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others.

Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.

adjectiveMarked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.

Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics.
The station (1840) was originally Cheltenham but the more grandiose Cheltenham Spa since 1925, which feels a bit pretentious as the town has never allowed itself to assume such airs and graces.2023 January 11, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: castles and cathedrals”, in RAIL, number 974, page 56

adjectiveMarked by pretense (not necessarily false pretense); intent upon success; ambitious.

The new trunk would be exploited direct to the traveling public, and he had the means for a pretentious start.1917 January, “Season 1917”, in Trunks, Leather Goods, and Umbrellas, volume 39, number 1, page 54

More sentences with pretentious

For Earl Grey fans – comme moi – are not pretentious.2014 March 31, Victoria Lambert, “In praise of Earl Grey, the tea that could tackle heart disease”, in The Daily Telegraph, London…. From the entry comme moi
The whole mood, frankly, is pretentious and undancerly — not infuriatingly so but disappointingly.2009 June 26, Alastair Macaulay, “Leading the Audience Into Flamenco’s Heart”, in New York Times. From the entry undancerly
Kurt Vonnegut put it to good use, but he wasn't pretentious with it (IMO).2005 May 12, Tom Keats, “the contrast!”, in rec.bicycles.misc (Usenet). From the entry dreckness
Even the onion soup was semi-homemade, a bit salty, but better than many a pretentious French restaurant.1974, The Washingtonian - Volume 9, page 134. From the entry semi-homemade
He seemed so learned, but not in any pretentious way.2019, Chris Meyer, (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 116. From the entry probe
Curwen gazed at the 'clever, fussy, pretentious Victorian typefaces spread about his composing room floor' and felt a wave of revulsion.2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 161. From the entry war effort
“I don't read poetry, it's written by sixteen year old wangsty girls, who've never had a boyfriend, or pretentious idiots.”2005 06, A.J. Venter, Batteries Not Included, Lulu.com, →ISBN. From the entry wangsty
"George Orwell put the easy use of words like 'unique' under the headings of 'pretentious diction' and overgeneralization.1995 July 7, Gary Houston, “Everything's Unique”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry overgeneralization
I refuse to have to validify myself as a human being to such a pretentious group of students.1977 February 5, Cynthia Adams, quotee, “Clark University Gays Block Ouster Attempt”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 32, page 4. From the entry validify
One can imagine the solemnly pretentious archaisms and hyperarchaisms — Dogberry elegancies — in the liturgies of such a guild.1920, Classical Philology, volume 15, page 183. From the entry hyperarchaism
The ‘babygirlification’ of the Roy siblings and overabundance of pretentious thought-pieces online is a clear testament to the empathetic portrayal of each character.2023, Genny Sheara, "'Nothing will come of nothing:' A Succession Retrospective [Spoilers]", The Spectator (Seattle University), 31 May 2023. From the entry babygirlification
If it’s an alignment with Italian practice that they desire, shouldn’t we be able to order three Frappuccini without sounding utterly pretentious?2008, Kerr Houston, “Breve New World: Thoughts on an Emergent Pidgin”, in Robert Hartwell Fiske, editor, Vocabula Bound 2: Our Wresting…. From the entry frappuccini
However, readers who found aureate terms pretentious began to call them inkhorn and inkpot terms, both references to the receptacles scholars carried to hold ink.1996, Keith D. White, John Keats and the Loss of Romantic Innocence [Costerus, new series; vol. 107], Amsterdam; Atlanta, Ga.: Rodopi…. From the entry aureate
A Nutcracker viewer might think ballet is pretentious because the Diane character on "Cheers" showed that aspect so well in a Zelda-like episode.1996, Speaking of History: Dance Scholarship in the '90s, page 102. From the entry Zelda-like
Music snobs amuse themselves by laughing at a colleague's collection of showtunes, or the hopelessly pretentious jazz of the goatee-ed guy at the other end of the dorm.2005 November 2, Leander Kahney, “The Cult of iPod”, in Playlist. From the entry playlistism
Dr Erasmus Darwin set up his two illegitimate daughters as the governesses of a school, noting that natural children often had happier (because less pretentious) upbringings than legitimate.1990, Roy Porter, English Society in the 18th Century, Penguin, published 1991, page 264. From the entry natural
In the Shang and Chou periods our knowledge from archaeology of ordinary dwellings is thus far poor, but something can be said of the more pretentious edifices.1971, William Waston, Cultural Frontiers in Ancient East Asia, Edinburgh University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 81. From the entry chou
My formal Spanish must have sounded as pretentious to the ears of the paisano as “Whither goeth my sire?” would have sounded to a semi-literate Ozark mountaineer.1969, Maya Angelou, chapter 30, in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, New York: Random House, published 2002, page 228. From the entry mountaineer
In conformity with other institutions first known as "universities", the Methodist school decided to drop the more pretentious term, henceforth to be called the College of the Pacific.1961, Earl Leon Werley Heck, The Rise of Higher Education in California, 1834–1910. From the entry commonious
They can tell you the exact point at which the cronut replaced the doughnut replaced the duffin replaced the crookie as the city’s pretentious baked hybrid sweet treat du jour.2015 December 18, Laura Craik, “Can’t cook, won’t cook”, in ES Magazine, page 6. From the entry crookie
That's how it was with the Who: Dumber than the Stones, not as musical as the Beatles, more gimmickily pretentious than either, they nevertheless possessed the largest capacity for transcendence.1997, Esquire: The Magazine for Men, volume 127. From the entry gimmickily

Meaning of pretentious

adjective Motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others.
adjective Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.
adjective Marked by pretense (not necessarily false pretense); intent upon success; ambitious.

Full definition of pretentious

Questions about pretentious in a sentence

How do you use pretentious in a sentence?: Pretentious is used as an adjective. For example: “Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.”
What is a short sentence with pretentious?: “Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.”
What does pretentious mean?: Pretentious means motivated by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified desire to impress others.

Adapted from Wiktionary: pretentious (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use pretentious in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/pretentious. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.