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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As Wilson, Jenny Ashman is suitably snide and supercilious, a great comic villain.—
Christopher Arnott,
Hartford Courant,
29 Jan. 2026
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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
Noun
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The idea that animals became transfixed by Francis’ preaching was reiterated in other devotional texts.—
Vanessa Corcoran,
The Conversation,
2 Feb. 2026
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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
Verb
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The first 10 minutes of the film are set in Norms, where a grungy man staggers in with a bomb, ranting about artificial intelligence.—
Fielding Buck,
Daily News,
10 Feb. 2026
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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
Adjective
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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
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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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At a time when Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has never been more popular, one TCM practice the internet can’t stop raving about is sipping hot water.—
Audrey Noble,
Vogue,
7 Feb. 2026
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If the devoted nun resembles the raving patient, does that not justify locking them away, protecting ourselves from their unsettling power?—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
5 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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But that move has always struck me as a little goofy in an introduction, like the teacher who delivers her lecture on punctuality to a bunch of empty seats.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Feb. 2026
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The lecture will cover how to use the flower in gardens and for decorations.—
La Jolla Light,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Pontificating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pontificating. Accessed 14 Feb. 2026.
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