affectation

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

And while there is a distinct artificiality to just about every aspect of the film’s structure, that affectation is what makes “Propeller One-Way Night Coach” so special.

From Salon • Jun. 2, 2026

The Hepburn surname was an affectation of her father’s, which she later adopted.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026

It plays out like a drunken freestyling session in your coolest friend’s apartment — with lines like “you are not that bitch” delivered with a heavily-accented affectation that feels seductive, but more importantly, unbothered.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025

Walking, standing — everyday movements performed by dancers without affectation to create something new, a kind of pedestrian classicism.

From New York Times • Jan. 29, 2023

In Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare has Berowne complain, “Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, / Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, / Figures pedantical; these summer flies / Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.”

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith