as in bumptious
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Recent Examples of self-dramatizing
Like Frey, Lowell was a self-dramatizing fraudster, taking elements of her real life and grandly embellishing them.
—
Michael Waters, New Yorker, 3 Jan. 2026
The Hemingway in the piece is a comic figure—self-dramatizing, repetitive, marooned within his own monologues, and sometimes ridiculously affected.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
In a head-turning breakout performance, Tonatiuh (seen recently in Carry-On) can flip from proud to humiliated, self-dramatizing to selfless, often within a single line reading.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Michael Waters, New Yorker, 3 Jan. 2026
The Hemingway in the piece is a comic figure—self-dramatizing, repetitive, marooned within his own monologues, and sometimes ridiculously affected.
—Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 10 Feb. 2025
In a head-turning breakout performance, Tonatiuh (seen recently in Carry-On) can flip from proud to humiliated, self-dramatizing to selfless, often within a single line reading.
—David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for self-dramatizing
Adjective
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And it’s been a very bumptious relationship ever since.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
4 Feb. 2026
-
In public, Newsom speaks often and openly about his errors, fortifying his image as a bumptious, slightly hapless victim of his own enthusiasms.—
Nathan Heller,
New Yorker,
1 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Claire’s elective death therefore remains a problematic choice for some viewers, an act of vainglorious selfishness from a woman who was never terribly nice to begin with.—
Leslie Felperin,
HollywoodReporter,
24 May 2026
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She’s been warning us since 1818 that vainglorious innovators will destroy the earth.—
Amy Nicholson,
Los Angeles Times,
10 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
The passage is incoherent, yet, in conflating progressive reform with arrogant blind faith, it is perfectly suited to Vance’s cynical conservatism.—
Jessica Winter,
New Yorker,
19 June 2026
-
To no one’s surprise, Bonnie is immediately transfixed by her Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee, whose arrogant smarm effectively threads the needle between Maya Hawke’s Anxiety and Regina George’s everything else).—
David Ehrlich,
IndieWire,
16 June 2026
Adjective
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Nevertheless, the self-aggrandizing and self-congratulations on display in the first three episodes available for review implies humility may be in short supply.—
Jon O'Brien,
IndieWire,
14 May 2026
-
Obnoxious and self-aggrandizing?—
Josef Adalian,
Vulture,
7 May 2026
Adjective
-
Avoid Burying Praise in Negatives To avoid making children too conceited, parents might bury praise in the midst of negatives.—
Wayne Parker,
Parents,
8 Mar. 2026
-
The Pitt definitely feels like the type of workplace where conceited doctors-in-training are pretty much guaranteed to quickly get knocked down a peg.—
Megan McCluskey,
Time,
8 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
Hathaway gets the most fun part to play in this formidable ensemble, starring as egotistical actress Daphne Kluger, who starts as the mark but ends up enlisting among the thieves.—
Chris Feil,
Vulture,
1 May 2026
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Demolishes the East Wing of the White House on an egotistical whim?—
Mark Barabak,
Mercury News,
1 May 2026
Adjective
-
That sweet spot between professionalism, entertainment and high-and-mighty disapproval?—
Phil Hay,
New York Times,
19 June 2025
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Lots of high-and-mighty people populate Tyrrell’s recollections.—
John Fund,
National Review,
26 Nov. 2023
Adjective
-
This Cannes Directors’ Fortnight prizewinner sets out its pitch-black-comic stall early with a prologue in which, after a brief contretemps, local man Raoul Brun (Jean-Louis Coulloc’h) blows his supercilious neighbor’s head off with a shotgun and then disappears.—
Jessica Kiang,
Variety,
16 June 2026
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After appearing as supercilious EPA company man Walter Peck in Ghostbusters, Atherton completed his trilogy of goofy comedies with Real Genius (1985) and Bio-Dome (1996).—
Declan Gallagher,
Entertainment Weekly,
8 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Self-dramatizing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/self-dramatizing. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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