as in arrogant
having a feeling of superiority that shows itself in an overbearing attitude
the supercilious art dealer rolled her eyes when we asked if she had anything for under $1,000
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in arrogance
an exaggerated sense of one's importance that shows itself in the making of excessive or unjustified claims
can't bear the superciliousness of her cousin, who lives in New York City and thinks everybody in Tennessee is a hick
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
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Recent Examples of supercilious
Armond White, National Review, 30 Apr. 2025
Arthur is … a lot too, but with a supercilious edge?
—Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 27 Mar. 2025
Not that Allen wasn’t above poking fun at a friend: In many of their films together, Allen presented Roberts as so cool-headed as to verge on the comically supercilious.
—Peter Tonguette, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Feb. 2025
Still, in many voters’ minds, the association between Democrats and supercilious scolding seems hard to shake.
—Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2024
Even Lu, most closed and supercilious of the bunch, has weird, troubled reservoirs of shame that gradually start to froth and bubble.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2024
Though emerging out of segregation, Black Greek-letter organizations, too, had supercilious standards for their members and rules about who could join.
—Jazmine Hughes, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024
The former focuses on man and nature (namely Navajos and Churro sheep); the latter, an ontological turn from Diné materiality toward Western enlightenment’s supercilious man-versus-nature divide.
—Petala Ironcloud, ARTnews.com, 9 Oct. 2024
That protest puts her in the crosshairs of the supercilious hospital bureaucrat Andrew (Simon McBurney), who seems very willing to throw Liz under the bus, particularly once those grieving parents complain to the tabloid press.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 17 Sep. 2024
Adjective
The show perpetuates corporate media’s retaliation against those who oppose its leftist, Marxist, Communist, socialist agenda — the ideological myth favored by superficial and supercilious showbiz types ever since All the President’s Men and Network.
—Armond White, National Review, 30 Apr. 2025
Arthur is … a lot too, but with a supercilious edge?
—Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune, 27 Mar. 2025
Not that Allen wasn’t above poking fun at a friend: In many of their films together, Allen presented Roberts as so cool-headed as to verge on the comically supercilious.
—Peter Tonguette, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 21 Feb. 2025
Still, in many voters’ minds, the association between Democrats and supercilious scolding seems hard to shake.
—Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2024
Even Lu, most closed and supercilious of the bunch, has weird, troubled reservoirs of shame that gradually start to froth and bubble.
—Sara Holdren, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2024
Though emerging out of segregation, Black Greek-letter organizations, too, had supercilious standards for their members and rules about who could join.
—Jazmine Hughes, The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 2024
The former focuses on man and nature (namely Navajos and Churro sheep); the latter, an ontological turn from Diné materiality toward Western enlightenment’s supercilious man-versus-nature divide.
—Petala Ironcloud, ARTnews.com, 9 Oct. 2024
That protest puts her in the crosshairs of the supercilious hospital bureaucrat Andrew (Simon McBurney), who seems very willing to throw Liz under the bus, particularly once those grieving parents complain to the tabloid press.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 17 Sep. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for supercilious
Adjective
-
Richard was known for being outspoken, if not arrogant, consistently rubbing his Tagi tribe the wrong way and offending some of them with his blatant display of nudity on the island.—
Nick Caruso,
TVLine,
27 May 2025
-
Multiple people described him to me as unpopular and arrogant.—
Amanda Chicago Lewis,
Harpers Magazine,
29 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Opinion: America was gaslit by the arrogance of Joe Biden and his enablers.—
Andrew J. Campa,
Los Angeles Times,
25 May 2025
-
The arrogance of the IRS should shock the conscience of all Americans.—
Chuck Flint,
Boston Herald,
21 May 2025
Noun
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The formal presentation took place in the same battle-scarred stadium, Berlin’s Olympiastadion, where Adolf Hitler watched Owens, the Black American athlete, win four gold medals in the 1936 Games, dealing a blow to Hitler’s notions of racial superiority.—
Ciarán Fahey,
Chicago Tribune,
27 May 2025
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Imagine a future Supreme Court case challenging church-state separation, with Christians vying against Christians for superiority.—
Emmett Coyne,
The Hill,
23 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Supercilious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/supercilious. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.
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