as in smug
having too high an opinion of oneself
a vainglorious woman who always insists on being the center of attention
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of vainglorious
Boyle plays Booth as both vainglorious and self-pitying.
—
Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2024
Having become frivolous, vainglorious, and suicidal, the Republican Party is on the verge of super-gluing itself to its risible liability of a perma-candidate for the eighth year in a row.
—Daniel Foster, National Review, 30 Nov. 2023
Saudi Arabia has, after all, seen the axis of resistance’s vainglorious and quixotic movie before.
—Bernard Haykel, Foreign Affairs, 12 Feb. 2024
Maximilian is often portrayed as a vainglorious buffoon, a quixotic old-school European aristocrat egged on by an ambitious wife.
—Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022
See All Example Sentences for vainglorious
Stuart Miller, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2024
Having become frivolous, vainglorious, and suicidal, the Republican Party is on the verge of super-gluing itself to its risible liability of a perma-candidate for the eighth year in a row.
—Daniel Foster, National Review, 30 Nov. 2023
Saudi Arabia has, after all, seen the axis of resistance’s vainglorious and quixotic movie before.
—Bernard Haykel, Foreign Affairs, 12 Feb. 2024
Maximilian is often portrayed as a vainglorious buffoon, a quixotic old-school European aristocrat egged on by an ambitious wife.
—Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs, 22 Feb. 2022
See All Example Sentences for vainglorious
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vainglorious
Adjective
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Everyone’s relationship has, yes, seasons, and each couple weathers a few different ones during the show, with smug closeness eroding into terse bitterness, doting affection into resentful frustration.—
Margaret Lyons,
New York Times,
1 May 2025
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Dissections of power and masculinity that once bristled with adversarial vitality evolved into arid dialectics and windy anecdotes pickled in smug cynicism and lacking in thematic clarity.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
30 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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The targets of Trump’s economic aggression will accept greater hardship to preserve their dignity than American voters will for the privilege of acting like arrogant menaces.—
David Frum,
The Atlantic,
29 Apr. 2025
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This feud carries on today, with Hogan having called out Hart for being too arrogant.—
David Faris,
MSNBC Newsweek,
11 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong are proud of the state of stoner comedy.—
Angela Andaloro,
People.com,
3 May 2025
-
Now, Robinson is the proud owner of the S.S. Almond Branch, a roughly 330-foot-long cargo ship that sank during World War I.—
Sarah Kuta,
Smithsonian Magazine,
2 May 2025
Adjective
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For Ueda, the fear is that his two-year effort to end Japan’s deflation-era rate policies will have been in vain.—
William Pesek,
Forbes.com,
30 Apr. 2025
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The film brought in $4.1 mil over the weekend, so Charles Melton did not shave Kit Connor in vain.—
Alejandra Gularte,
Vulture,
20 Apr. 2025
Adjective
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And for any fan of the show — and Wilson’s over-the-top, egotistical Dwight — the lyrics might not be a total surprise.—
Victoria Edel,
People.com,
15 Apr. 2025
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In the 1998 episode, Theroux, 53, appears briefly as an egotistical writer who flirts with Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw at a party.—
John Russell,
People.com,
26 Mar. 2025
Adjective
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Matt and his direct reports quickly reveal themselves to be spineless, self-important, thin-skinned, and out of touch.—
Inkoo Kang,
New Yorker,
5 May 2025
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His cruel caricature of the technocratic, self-important, and sometimes petty bureaucratic culture of the commission is largely accurate.—
Andrew Moravcsik,
Foreign Affairs,
10 Dec. 2019
Adjective
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This is the worst kind of football team: a conceited but objectively mediocre squad.—
Dieter Kurtenbach,
The Mercury News,
17 Nov. 2024
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Rory Kinnear steals some of the best lines as the conceited British prime minister, and Ato Essandoh, as Kate’s deputy chief, plays the ever-flustered man surrounded by extremely capable women with admirable humor, charm, and confidence.—
Ben Travers,
IndieWire,
30 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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Nelis renders the professor a pompous and pedantic twit but not a heartless one.—
Charles McNulty,
Los Angeles Times,
19 Mar. 2025
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Our rituals and our cassocks are pompous.—
Paul Elie,
The New Yorker,
26 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Vainglorious.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vainglorious. Accessed 11 May. 2025.
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