pompousness

noun

Definition of pompousnessnext
1
as in arrogance
an exaggerated sense of one's importance that shows itself in the making of excessive or unjustified claims offended by the pompousness of the minor official

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in vanity
an often unjustified feeling of being pleased with oneself or with one's situation or achievements the pompousness of the self-made billionaire was evident in the gaudy mansion he built for himself

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pompousness Any claim for Swift’s genius should reckon with her lapses into imprecision and pompousness. — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 4 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pompousness
  1. arrogance
  2. vanity
  3. superiority
  4. ego
  5. pride
  6. smugness
Noun
  • Ilya is looking for work as an assistant, and the professor, with his dandyish nerd arrogance, tells him to look at a paper he’s written and come back in a few days.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 6 Oct. 2026
  • This standalone novel looks at the cult of celebrity, the bond among parents and children, entitlement and arrogance, all wrapped into a tightly wound plot that’s an evocative historical steeped in the Great Depression.
    — Oline H. Cogdill, Sun Sentinel, 1 Oct. 2026
Definition of arrogance
Noun
  • Rather than through a cold call or email, the scammers lure them through websites offering self-publishing or vanity publishing.
    — Snigdha Poonam, The Dial, 13 Oct. 2026
  • And the angelic youth Dorian Gray’s deadly descent into vanity and vice—ignited by a hubristic obsession with his own image—eerily foreshadows the grim trajectory of Wilde’s later years.
    — Hannah Aizenman, New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2026
Definition of vanity
Noun
  • Meanwhile, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which sees space superiority as essential to winning future wars, is developing a range of space capabilities as well as a suite of weapons that can attack satellites.
    — Kathleen Curlee, Foreign Affairs, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Credibility is affected deeply by strategic cultural assessments about superiority and inferiority, and notions about when, where, how and for whom the credibility matters.
    — Christopher Nichols, The Conversation, 9 Oct. 2026
Definition of superiority
Noun
  • For Weinberg, learning from those failures requires putting ego aside and taking an honest look at what went wrong—and what worked.
    — Preston Fore, Fortune, 8 Oct. 2026
  • His ego is in exact inverse proportion to Ilya’s, which is part of what makes Garfield and Borisov play so beautifully off each other.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of ego
Noun
  • Some will say past results don’t matter, but many of TCU’s veterans are used to beating Baylor and take pride it in.
    — Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Behind the reputation that surrounded them, there was humor, loyalty, and pride.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of pride
Noun
  • That joke, which McNamara hits with a palpable sparkle of smugness, illustrates how deliciously blunt her comedic sensibility is.
    — Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Even if the movie gets a bit crazy in an apocalyptic epilogue, its picture of bourgeois smugness due for a takedown is delicious.
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 8 Sep. 2026
Definition of smugness

Browse Nearby Words

pompously
pompousness
poncho
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Pompousness.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pompousness. Accessed 18 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

The Words of the Week - Oct. 16
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All