pretension

Shortly after arriving here, Gellhorn returned to the China front and once again left Ernest to be Ernest, this time with an ocean view and manorial comforts, with a bearable touch of pretension.

Reflecting on the press, he later noted, "The press has pretensions of being a crusader but is more often a preserver of the status quo."

Total self-assurance is exactly how Sonny, like Pitt, gets away with his pretension.

Patti Smith’s music “verged on a parody of beat poetry,” while the vastly influential Velvet Underground, a band that made New York punk possible, is hobbled by its “pretensions to hipness, irony and amorality.”

Any pretension exhibited was earned with the grace of a batted eyelash and a knowing smirk.