pompous

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. adjective puffed up with vanity; ; ; ; - Newsweek
  2. adjective characterized by pomp and ceremony and stately display

Etymology

From Middle English pompous, from Old French pompeux, pompos, from Late Latin pomposus, from Latin pompa (“pomp”), from Ancient Greek πομπή (pompḗ, “a sending, a solemn procession, pomp”), from πέμπω (pémpō, “to send”), equivalent to pomp + -ous. Doublet of pomposo.

In classic literature

Synonyms

grandiloquent, overblown, pontifical, portentous

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