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
And so Nokia, Microsoft, BlackBerry and co went back to sleep, confident that their mastery of a mature industry would see the parvenu off.
From The Guardian • Aug. 6, 2017
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
As befits such a status-obsessed parvenu, Monsieur Jourdain has arrived in style, ushered along by the energetic director Denis Podalydès, a popular polymath in France who also writes and acts on both screen and stage.
From New York Times • Jul. 21, 2016
Her connexions were admirable—high enough to give him a very considerable lift socially, and yet not so elevated as to make his rise that of a mere "parvenu."
From Luttrell Of Arran Complete by Lever, Charles James
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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