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“pretentious”
pretentious (adjective); more pretentious, most pretentious
1. Descriptive of a person who claims a position of distinction or merit, even when it is not justified: Don is a pretentious salesman who claims to be the greatest contributor to his company's profitable existence.
2. Relating to the unpleasant quality of a person who wants to be regarded as more impressive, successful, or more important than he or she really is: By using pretentious language, Jack expressed how easy the chemistry test was even though he did not have the highest grade after it was corrected by his teacher.
3. Etymology: from Latin pretentionem, "pretension"; from praetendere, "to pretend" from French prétentieux, "pretension."
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2. Relating to the unpleasant quality of a person who wants to be regarded as more impressive, successful, or more important than he or she really is: By using pretentious language, Jack expressed how easy the chemistry test was even though he did not have the highest grade after it was corrected by his teacher.
3. Etymology: from Latin pretentionem, "pretension"; from praetendere, "to pretend" from French prétentieux, "pretension."
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This entry is located in the following units:
-ous, -ious, -eous
(page 17)
pre-, prae-
(page 18)
tend-, tendo-, ten-, teno-, tenot-, tenonto-, tens-, tent-, -tend, -tension, -tent, -tense, -tensive, -tentious
(page 7)
A unit related to:
“pretentious”
(Latin: self-important, pretentious, inflated ego)