Synonyms of sententious

sententious

adjective

sen-ˈten(t)-shəs 

1

as in moralizing

marked by or given to preaching moral values

a sententious crank who has written countless letters to the editor about the decline in family values

Synonyms & Similar Words

• moralizing
• sermonic
• didactic
• instructive
• moralistic
• homiletic
• preachy
• prescriptive
• dogmatic
• advisory
• admonitory
• cautionary
• enlightening
• admonishing
• self-righteous
• holier-than-thou

2

as in concise

marked by the use of few words to convey much information or meaning

memoirs that are filled with sententious observations on love, marriage, and happiness

Synonyms & Similar Words

• concise
• brief
• summary
• pithy
• epigrammatic
• aphoristic
• succinct
• laconic
• telegraphic
• blunt
• terse
• curt
• compendious
• monosyllabic
• short
• compact
• abrupt
• crisp
• elliptical
• capsule
• condensed
• apothegmatic
• brusque
• thumbnail
• abbreviated
• shortened
• meaningful
• abridged
• curtailed
• snippy
• substantial
• snippety
• meaty
• well-turned
• significant

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• prolix
• wordy
• circuitous
• verbose
• redundant
• rambling
• repetitious
• diffuse
• windy
• tautological
• enlarged
• long-winded
• circumlocutory
• exaggerated
• pleonastic
• tautologous
• inflated
• expanded
• supplemented
• embroidered
• embellished

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of sententious

Even in the fixedness of their forms—their sententious certitude—a single work may conflate the erotic and the machinic, the vernacular and the archetypal, the abstract and the practical. — Ara H. Merjian, ARTnews.com, 16 Aug. 2026

This conclusion will shock anyone who knows Twain only through his writing, in which the author is wise and witty and, above all, devastating in his portrayal of frauds, cretins, and sententious bores. — Graeme Wood, The Atlantic, 9 May 2025

Audiences have no choice but to exist in the theatrical moment, without recourse to linear logic, sententious language or psychological epiphanies. — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 16 Mar. 2025

This is a bracing, even novel, perspective on a war whose film depictions so often traffic in sententious Greatest Generation platitudes. — Justin Chang, The New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2024

Without the wit inherent in an epigram, a sententious formulation becomes a mere adage, aphorism, apothegm, gnome, maxim, or saw. — Bryan A. Garner, National Review, 15 Sep. 2022

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