parvenu
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.
Chenoweth, who is as gleaming as a holiday ornament on Liberace’s Christmas tree, arrives at a canny balance of quixotic generosity and parvenu carelessness in her portrayal of a woman she refuses to lampoon.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 9, 2025
But Corya is no vulgar, narcissistic bully and parvenu.
From Slate • May 21, 2020
In one scene, Trimalchio, a parvenu who serves dishes like a boiled calf wearing a helmet, decides that a mere party isn’t enough and holds a mock funeral for himself.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 30, 2016
He comes across as a shrewd, well-meaning parvenu who savors the expensive, tacky trappings of his success but who has no mythic stature whatsoever.
From New York Times • Jul. 4, 2013
Parvenu, p�r′ve-nū, n. an upstart: one newly risen into notice or power.—adj. like a parvenu.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various
Vocabulary lists containing parvenu
English Words Derived from French, List 7
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
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