# pretentious

Pronunciation: US say "pri-TEN-chuhs" /pɹɪˈtɛn.t͡ʃəs/; UK

## Adjective

1. Driven by an inappropriate, excessive, or unjustified wish to impress others, or claiming an importance or distinction that is not deserved.
   - Simple: Trying too hard to impress people or to seem more important than is true.
   - _The restaurant's pretentious menu called a plain cheeseburger a "handcrafted beef experience."_
   - _Critics found the film pretentious, full of long silences and borrowed symbols._

## Origin

From French prétentieux, from prétention, from Latin praetēnsus, the past participle of praetendō. It is spelled with a t, unlike the related pretense and pretension, because of the French spelling: English has no suffix -sious, though it has both -sion and -tion.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/pretentious (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).