Word.ws English Dictionary

supercilious

UK/ˌsuː.pəˈsɪ.li.əs//ˌsu.pɚˈsɪ.li.əs/

supercilious adjective: arrogantly superior; showing contemptuous indifference; haughty.

Adjective

supercilious (comparative more supercilious, superlative most supercilious)

  1. Arrogantly superior; showing contemptuous indifference; haughty.
    • [H]is ſupercilious glances grevv humbled, yea, his dazeling ſplendor (eclipſt in the ſetting [i.e., death] of his Maſter) becomes quickly darkned: […]1638, Tho[mas] Herbert, Some Yeares Travels Into Divers Parts of Asia and Afrique. […], 2nd edition, London: […] R[ichard] Bi[sho]p for Iacob Blome and Richard Bishop, →OCLC, book II, page 206
    • "I've tried to be a good man, sir, and do my duty honest, and if it wasn't for the supercilus^([sic]) kind of way in which father carried on last night - a sort of sniffing at me as it were, as though he hadn't no opinion of my references and testimonials - I should feel easy enough in my mind."1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

supercilious meaning in Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada

supercilious in Bengali

অহংকারী, উদ্ধত

supercilious in Malayalam

conceited, arrogant, haughty
ഉദ്ധതനായ, അത്യുദ്ധതമായ, നിന്ദാഗർഭമായ, ഗർവുപിടിച്ച, ഗർവ്വിഷ്ഠ, ഗർവ്വിത

supercilious in Kannada

ಗರ್ವದ, ಅಹಂಕಾರದ, ದರ್ಪದ, ಉಪೇಕ್ಷೆಯ, ತಿರಸ್ಕಾರ ಭಾವದ, ಪ್ರತಿಷ್ಠೆಯ

Synonyms of supercilious

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of supercilious

Forms of supercilious

comparativemore supercilious
superlativemost supercilious

Origin of supercilious

Learned borrowing from Latin superciliōsus (“haughty”).

Words formed from supercilious

Words that rhyme with supercilious

Questions about supercilious

What does supercilious mean?
Supercilious means arrogantly superior; showing contemptuous indifference; haughty.
What is supercilious in Bengali?
Supercilious in Bengali is অহংকারী, উদ্ধত. See Supercilious meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is supercilious?
Supercilious is an adjective.
How do you pronounce supercilious?
Supercilious is pronounced /ˌsuː.pəˈsɪ.li.əs/ (UK).

Words near supercilious in the dictionary

  1. superchurches
  2. supercilia
  3. superciliaries
  4. superciliary
  5. superciliosity
  6. supercilious
  7. superciliously
  8. superciliousness
  9. supercilium
  10. supercinema
  11. supercinemas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: supercilious (page history and authors); supercilious (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); supercilious (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); supercilious (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-supercilious.ogg.

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