as in supercilious
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as in preaching
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as in ranting
disapproving
to speak or express your opinion about something in a way that shows that you think you are always right
We had to listen to her pontificate about the best way to raise children.
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Recent Examples of pontificating
Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 9 Jan. 2026
Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 31 Aug. 2025
Dónal Gill, The Dial, 28 Oct. 2025
Rather than the writer pontificating about how Pfleger needs to retire from active priesthood, how about a better use of his time by advocating the notion that pedophile priests should be retired to jail.
—Chicago Tribune, 5 Sep. 2025
Adjective
Oscar speeches can feel pontificating and pointless, a shout into the echo chamber.
—Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 9 Jan. 2026
Noun
If all that is a little too cerebral, viewers can wait out the pontificating until the next performance comes along.
—Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 31 Aug. 2025
Verb
In the 1960s, Canadians hungered for public intellectuals pontificating on the distinctiveness of their identity.
—Dónal Gill, The Dial, 28 Oct. 2025
Rather than the writer pontificating about how Pfleger needs to retire from active priesthood, how about a better use of his time by advocating the notion that pedophile priests should be retired to jail.
—Chicago Tribune, 5 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pontificating
Adjective
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And now the supercilious Ivy League twits try to dodge the consequences of their woke follies.—
Howie Carr,
Boston Herald,
24 Dec. 2025
-
Klára works at a grocery store formerly owned by the family of her colleague Elza (Hermina Fátyol) but now taken over by a supercilious Stalinist (Konrád Quintus) who doesn’t bother hiding his disdain for the two Jewish women.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
28 Aug. 2025
Noun
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In the 1980s, he was ordained as a Pentecostal minister, and went on to lead parallel careers in acting and preaching.—
Chloe Veltman,
NPR,
31 Jan. 2026
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Yet not everyone approved of women teaching and preaching, including a second-century church father named Tertullian.—
Christy Cobb,
The Conversation,
16 Jan. 2026
Verb
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In two minutes of ranting and raving about his degenerate son’s twenty-six-thousand-dollar dinner bill, Reiner gave an indelible comedic performance destined to be quoted for years to come.—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
17 Dec. 2025
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At another time, a perpetually anxious comedian who can’t keep from ranting about his paranoid worries about the end of the world probably would not feel like such a helpful guide to life.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
3 Dec. 2025
Adjective
-
In a 2001 interview with the film journal Senses of Cinema, Tarr acknowledged the thematic and aesthetic shift in these later works, their pivot away from social realism and toward a moody, magisterial formalism.—
Justin Chang,
New Yorker,
8 Jan. 2026
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Passmore’s magisterial, revisionist account of the Maginot Line—the network of French fortifications built in the 1920s and 1930s to stop a German invasion—challenges the conventional understanding of its role in World War II.—
Foreign Affairs,
Foreign Affairs,
16 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
This is where the sanctimony and the moralizing comes in.—
Miami Herald,
Miami Herald,
28 Jan. 2026
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But the framing of the piece skews moralizing and voyeuristic.—
Rosa Lyster,
Harpers Magazine,
30 Dec. 2025
Verb
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Viral appeal The mini beignets became well-known online after food influencers started raving about them in posts and videos, garnering thousands of likes and views.—
Julianna Duennes Russ,
Austin American Statesman,
3 Feb. 2026
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Even people who are not squash favorites were raving.—
Alana Al-Hatlani,
Southern Living,
1 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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The bishops further authorized a new edition of the Roman Pontifical for pontifical Masses, expected to be completed by 2027, with Vatican approval pending for some rites, according to the Catholic News Agency.—
Jordan King,
MSNBC Newsweek,
13 Nov. 2025
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In its report, the pontifical commission highlights failures in the Italian church.—
Christopher Lamb,
CNN Money,
16 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Use it to summarize lecture notes.—
Gerald Bradshaw,
Chicago Tribune,
3 Feb. 2026
-
No one wants a lecture on tannins at a crowded street party.—
Jonathan Kleeman,
Rolling Stone,
28 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pontificating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pontificating. Accessed 5 Feb. 2026.
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