pretension
Example Sentences
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In some ways the films seem to invite accusations of pretension, of reach exceeding grasp and grandeur stretched into grandiosity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 24, 2025
Total self-assurance is exactly how Sonny, like Pitt, gets away with his pretension.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2025
Many of the early bands’ sound had a preciseness to it and a simultaneous lack of pretension.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025
There was a baby-knit culotte and matching polo with Gucci stripe detailing, worn without pretension.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2023
We have responded to this distant Austrian’s voice across the years and the continents so spontaneously because his music seems simply to flow out of him, intuitively, without cynicism or intellectual pretension.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
He has no pretensions, but he’s completely comfortable on camera—something to director Lee’s advantage and which probably helped the pupils to relax.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Edmund is said to be brilliant but we mostly get evidence of his pretensions and “annoying air of lazy authority.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
In 1956, shortly before his death, Mencken went even further; “American journalism is predominantly paltry and worthless. Its pretensions are enormous, but its achievements are insignificant.”
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2025
The prospect of wrecking England's title pretensions, while dodging the Wooden Spoon will brew up an almighty atmosphere under the Principality roof.
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2025
Ned had last seen the king nine years before during Balon Greyjoy's rebel-lion, when the stag and the direwolf had joined to end the pretensions of the self-proclaimed King of the Iron Is-lands.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Vocabulary lists containing pretension
Common Sense
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Pygmalion
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The 57 Bus
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