Word.ws English Dictionary

vainglories

vainglories is the plural of vainglory.

Meaning of vainglory

Noun

vainglory (countable and uncountable, plural vainglories)

  1. Excessive vanity.
  2. Boastful, unwarranted pride in one's accomplishments or qualities.
    • Then he reasoned, as he had in the days past, that the course of human history had shown national pride—the inflexible kind—to be mankind’s worst enemy, and ordinary people paid the price in suffering. Nations had gone down because of vainglory, when moderation might have civilized and saved them.1962, Arthur Hailey, “Chapter Eleven: The White House”, in In High Places (fiction)
  3. Vain, ostentatious display.
    • The pew would soon want new flooring, Mr. Dangerfield thought, and the Castlemallard arms and supporters, a rather dingy piece of vainglory, overhanging the main seat on the wall, would be nothing the worse of a little fresh gilding and paint.1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
  4. A regarding of oneself with undue favor.

See all 5 meanings of vainglory

Questions about vainglories

What is vainglories the plural of?
Vainglories is the plural of vainglory.

Words near vainglories in the dictionary

  1. vainer
  2. vainesse
  3. vainest
  4. vainful
  5. vaingloried
  6. vainglories
  7. vaingloriness
  8. vainglorious
  9. vaingloriously
  10. vaingloriousness
  11. vainglory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vainglories (page history and authors); vainglory (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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