meretricious
Example Sentences
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“Shakespeare in Love” kidnapped its subject to force him into a flimsy and meretricious romcom; “Hamnet” reduces the concept of tragedy to actors being extremely sad.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 27, 2025
Or maybe, seen with a cold eye, meretricious.
From New York Times • Mar. 14, 2024
The economic crash of 1929 descended on America like an ice age, ending a meretricious prosperity.
From Salon • Nov. 4, 2023
Waititi has a long-standing affinity for young characters, whether he’s making a charmer like “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” or a meretricious clunker like “Jojo Rabbit.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 5, 2022
Goldoni and Chiari were his Euripides and Agathon; perverters of the good old comedy by vulgar realism, false pathos, and meretricious rhetoric.
From The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi; Volume the First by Gozzi, Carlo
Vocabulary lists containing meretricious
The Great Gatsby
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Fake It 'Til You Make It: Synonyms for "False"
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"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry
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