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
His mother, “born of samurai stock” and married to “a parvenu beneath herself,” succumbed to mental illness six months after Ryunosuke’s birth.
From New York Times • Oct. 12, 2018
Just as the parvenu tries to elevate himself into a higher social realm, the word climber wishes to seem more intelligent than he actually is.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 13, 2017
In 1925, Gatsby’s pink suit marked him as an attention-seeking parvenu; today, you can buy a $996 replica from Brooks Brothers’ new “Gatsby Collection.”
From Slate • May 22, 2013
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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