Word of the Day

: April 25, 2009

sententious

adjective sen-TEN-shus

What It Means

1 : given to or abounding in aphoristic expression or excessive moralizing

2 : terse, aphoristic, or moralistic in expression

sententious in Context

The paper that Jed handed in to his teacher was not so much a research paper as a sententious manifesto denouncing globalization.

Did You Know?

Nowadays, "sententious" is usually uncomplimentary, implying banality, oversimplification, and excessive moralizing. But that hasn't always been the case, nor is it universally so even now. The original Middle English sense of "sententious" was "full of meaning," a meaning adopted from Latin "sententiosus" (from "sententia," meaning "sentence" or "maxim"). In Modern English, too, "sententious" has sometimes referred to what is full of significance and expressed tersely. Or sometimes "sententious" simply suggests an affinity for aphorisms, as when it refers to the likes of Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard (of almanac fame), the homespun philosopher given to such statements as "early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."