as in pretender
disapproving
a person who dresses or behaves in a deceptive way that is meant to impress other people
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
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 poseur
The nature of the American political system propagates scads of lawyers and poseurs who blather on endlessly, promising everything and delivering little.
—
Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 14 Jan. 2026
Nobody made videos in those primitive days, nobody except weird Brit poseurs and art freaks and thirsty postpunk eccentrics, so the network was forced to play them all.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 16 Nov. 2025
Godard might have come across as a species of poseur – a pretentious, quote-spouting mountebank – but his way of seeing was genuinely new.
—Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 13 Nov. 2025
There’s also a conspiracy that catches fire on social media to make Superman look like a poseur.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 8 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for poseur
Laura Washington, Chicago Tribune, 14 Jan. 2026
Nobody made videos in those primitive days, nobody except weird Brit poseurs and art freaks and thirsty postpunk eccentrics, so the network was forced to play them all.
—Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 16 Nov. 2025
Godard might have come across as a species of poseur – a pretentious, quote-spouting mountebank – but his way of seeing was genuinely new.
—Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor, 13 Nov. 2025
There’s also a conspiracy that catches fire on social media to make Superman look like a poseur.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 8 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for poseur
Recent Examples of Synonyms for poseur
Noun
-
The Cult of the Beaver has to fend off pretenders.—
AJ Willingham,
AJC.com,
13 Jan. 2026
-
Advertisement Iranians deserve better than the Pahlavi pretender.—
Bobby Ghosh,
Time,
9 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
First up was Ben Shapiro, who described Tucker Carlson and others as grifters and charlatans, guilty of misleading their audiences with falsehoods and conspiracy theories.—
Jonathan J. Cooper,
Fortune,
19 Dec. 2025
-
Of course, there is also plenty of Trump flattery along with paeans to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his cockamamie make-America-sick-again agenda, as one medical charlatan nods to another.—
Mark Z. Barabak,
Mercury News,
10 Dec. 2025
Noun
-
Michtom didn’t bother to patent his invention; the imitators merely spurred interest.—
Alexandra Schwartz,
New Yorker,
9 Feb. 2026
-
The popularity of products like Meta Ray-Bans has opened up a new market of imitators who are in an arms race to make their smart glasses as ethically dubious as possible, perhaps with a little help from AI or facial recognition software.—
Frank Landymore,
Futurism,
28 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Days later, a note was sent directly to the Guthrie family, allegedly from a man living in Hawthorne, that authorities now say was an impostor.—
Hannah Fry,
Los Angeles Times,
11 Feb. 2026
-
The mood in the village shifts from suspicion to open hostility as the locals become more and more convinced that Hein is an impostor.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
11 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
To tell the truly venomous from the fakers, there are a couple details to help distinguish the two.—
Kirsten Fiscus,
Nashville Tennessean,
17 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
That has fueled a surge of copycat filings nationwide.—
Kaelan Deese,
The Washington Examiner,
6 Feb. 2026
-
Thanks to the poached chicken, this copycat recipe just might be even better than the original.—
Kimberly Holland,
Southern Living,
4 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Good afternoon and welcome to Con Con, the convention for swindlers, mountebanks, and the people who love them.—
Henry Alford,
New Yorker,
1 Dec. 2025
-
Godard might have come across as a species of poseur – a pretentious, quote-spouting mountebank – but his way of seeing was genuinely new.—
Peter Rainer,
Christian Science Monitor,
13 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Sometimes wrestlers have even portrayed real political figures, as when impersonators of then-Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton squared off during the 2008 presidential campaign.—
Michael Ballaban,
CNN Money,
14 Feb. 2026
-
There are biblical storms, creepy family members, Dolly Parton impersonators, a motel clerk named Norman, a hearty side plot involving a suffragist hit squad, and multiple houses on fire.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
12 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Poseur.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/poseur. Accessed 17 Feb. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
