How To Use Pretentious In A Sentence

Many of the pictures and symbols were helpful to the Democrats 'cause: a family that clearly was from the real America -- Wallace and Bobby, his parents; a wife, Elizabeth, who looks like the kind of unpretentious person who doesn't mind celebrating her anniversary at Wendy's; a demure daughter and two towheaded tots. Digital Dispatches
Music critics have often poured scorn on progressive rock for being boring, pompous and pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
It might also turn educational policy toward explorations and displays of cultural diversity that are less politically pretentious. Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism
The food is gutsy and unpretentious, and recipes such as squid stuffed with raisins and pine kernels, or polenta and Seville orange cake, certainly do it for me.
The Dodgers were “dem Bums,” the “daffiness boys,” the unpretentious clowns, whose fans were seen as scruffy bluecollar workers who spoke with bad diction. Wait Till Next Year

A sober brick building, unpretentious in scale and design, lies modestly low among lawns at the end of a road with playing fields on either side.
Bunker is chic and arty without being too pretentious, and its friendly, laid-back vibe is infectious.
It's a low budget affair and so the hotel was unpretentious and homely and cheap.
Some, no doubt, find this pretentious old cobblers. Times, Sunday Times
It couldn't happen to a nicer and less pretentious place. Times, Sunday Times
Welcome to Wine Country Yacht Charters, Napa County's most unpretentious place to relax and drink wine.
The desserts range from the unpretentious — an ice cream sundae or sorbet — to the splendacious — caramel panna cotta, hazelnut Anglaise, or two kinds of crepes.
Le Mercier was a pickthank, angling after the favor of La Pompadour, -- a pretentious knave, as hollow as one of his own mortars. The Golden Dog
Isabelle arrives accompanied by her silly and pretentious mother and Romainville, a middle-aged roué and friend.
The monochrome weekly magazine of my youth was mouthy, pretentious, political and packed with occult knowledge. Times, Sunday Times
Stack's taste and style were admirable yet always unpretentious, with no trace of affectation or competitiveness. Times, Sunday Times
Offering a wide variety of flexible, unpretentious, gutsy food with modest bills, it's affordable and fun.
The bridge design is unpretentious. It consists simply of two steel towers supporting a lift span.
Leaving the cosmopolitan town of modern Cairo, the iron bridges, and the pretentious hotels, with their flaunting inscriptions, it imparts a sense of sudden peacefulness to pass along the large and rapid waters of this river, between the curtains of palm-trees on the banks, borne by a dahabiya where one is master and, if one likes, may be alone. Egypt (La Mort de Philae)
You didn't find it a little pretentious? Times, Sunday Times
Pronunciations that violate English phonotactics come off as even more pretentious. Olivia O’Leary | Linguism | Language Blog
Last month the judges -- bleary-eyed from reading 130 nominated books each -- attacked publishers for submitting works they called "portentous," "pretentious" and "pompous. Eyes On The Prize
It's clever, but it's angsty and pretentious too. Times, Sunday Times
For as they see it metaphysics is a pretentious, conceptually misguided form of myth-making, a “pseudo-science” masquer - ading as a genuine source of knowledge. METAPHYSICAL IMAGINATION
She managed to impart great elegance to the unpretentious dress she was wearing.
Extravagantly showy and ostentatious work is pretentious when the merit it demands is unjustified.
Saturday January 26 2008 and it's 4am at home in Eccleston, a sleepy town in west Lancashire, north of Manchester and west of Liverpool - nowhere in particular, anonymous and unpretentious, which is exactly as I like it. Blogposts | guardian.co.uk
I'm not the sort of pencil connoisseur to use pretentious French words (whoops -- too late) and imply that using the ideal writing utensil is some kind of transcendental experience. Archive 2008-05-01
The missing apostrophe from area's you might put down to a typing error; the missing hyphens from well-maintained, 5th-floor, and ready-to-move-into you might ascribe to the pandemic mishandling of those simple punctuation marks; the misrelated clause at the beginning and the dubiously related clause at the end are not so easily shrugged off: they are the faults of pretension rather than ignorance, and the illiteracy of pretentiousness is the vulgarest and most reprehensible. VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIII No 2
You may be wrong, but you won't look pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
The band make no bones about acknowledging the soul, funk, and jazz roots of hip-hop without being pretentious posers.
We do not use pretentious, fictitious terms for my establishment's beverages.
Ultimately what it amounts to is an aversion to pretentiousness and egomania.
Esther Kläs's engaging, unpretentiously reductive sculpture evokes the postwar, semiabstracted, universalist figures of Reg Butler, Germaine Richier and Kenneth Armitage. Abstracts (Subtle or Semi) And Bold Dimensions
Outside of the pretentiously fashion conscious who feel they need to spend more on certain items, no one purposefully spends more on a product than they have to. Over-worked or Over-taxed?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
I however consider myself to be anglicizing the whole name, but I certainly agree that saying it with no final /t/ wd be as pretentious as using a uvular r for the word. Port-au-Prince, Haiti | Linguism | Language Blog
Nikka Costa is a rare treasure; a one-time child star who has grown into an unpretentious, genuinely talented adult.
Fiorina, he was approvingly described as "unpretentious" -- a button-down manager who prized efficiency over flair. mark hurd, mark hurd wife, mark hurd resigns, hpq, hp, hp ceo WN.com - Business News
The house is unpretentious in its lack of refinement. Times, Sunday Times
However, I fear they are retreating, and minority indulgences such as cribbage are going the same way as dominoes, shove ha'penny, bar billiards, and the very jolly, unpretentious boozers in which they used to be played day and night. Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
Tapas bars are proliferating because they serve up a wide variety of flexible, unpretentious, gutsy food and modest bills.
Or maybe that sounds incredibly pretentious and I just waffle.
Their monologues, pretentious, thick or plain naff, provide a sort of alternative history for the age of celebrity.
To set poetry to drama makes the verse pompous and pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
Or is this pretentious nonsense? Times, Sunday Times
Amis's Keith is a more-or-less civilised massive tool, a student of English literature given to pretentious pontificating, who wants to stay true to his girlfriend but can't help leching slaveringly over the weirdly unselfconscious sexbomb Scheherazade. Archive 2010-03-01
They see it as rather pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
It is pretentious to say it, but my arrival was a strong sign. Times, Sunday Times
Fantastic views, bizarre place, very discreet, unpresuming and unpretentious.
He spouts a load of pretentious nonsense and people are stupid enough to believe him!
Alaska, the particular reality from which Palin hails, is so little known by most Americans that she was able to freely mythicize her state as the utopian last refuge of the "hard work ethic," "unpretentious living," and proud self-sufficiency. The New York Review of Books
Sorry if that all sounds a bit pretentious and improbable. Times, Sunday Times
Back then, the Pop Group were almost too much to take in: pretentious, arrogant, noisy, chaotic, violent to the point of implosive. The Pop Group: still blazing a trail that makes rock look conservative
Of course a lot of what he said was pretentious rubbish but that is normal for art critics.
My first instinct would be to stop using the pretentious word "idempotent", which is a symptom of the Haskellers 'disease of assuming that math terminology is a good way to concisely communicate concepts to non-mathematicians ... Reddit.com: what's new online!
The unpretentious, butter-hued dining room is calm then - underpopulated, even, compared to the Darwinian bray and jostle of jampacked evenings.
He has a tendency towards pretentiousness.
The dialogue is self-consciously clunky, the characters are stereotypes and each section is fronted with a pretentiously redundant quotation.
And while it was hardly a pop revolution, there was a simple, unpretentious charm about the performance. Times, Sunday Times
They used these simple stacked facades for unpretentious utilitarian buildings; the repeated detail lent itself to prefabrication.
I therefore have no idea whether Captain Dinwiddie is one of the supreme works of American literature or a pretentious farrago. TROPIC OF NIGHT
The conciliative is a supposedly pretentious for osmotically shinny and a fantabulous saltpetre for an biyearly sugi. Rational Review
They're too tongue-in-cheek, too savvy and intelligent to be discounted as amateurs, yet sophomoric enough to not buckle to pretentiousness and delusions of grandeur.
His movies simulate one of the least pretentious activities of all - people-watching.
Towards the other wives and their children she was always extremely imperious, haughty and pretentious.
A term applied to art or artefacts characterized by vulgarity, sentimentality, and pretentious bad taste.
It was like a scene from one of those pretentious pop videos on MTV. THE DEVIL'S DOOR
I was raised in Canberra, where the public education system is quite excellent and the handful of private schools are relatively unpretentious.
I am a slightly lazy, time-poor, unpretentious pragmatist. Times, Sunday Times
What was needed therefore was a superlative comeback - original, clever without pretentiousness and above all very funny.
I hate the term auteur - it sounds so poncy and pretentious - but for Ramsay, the title fits.
Le Bourgeois gentilhomme satirizes attempts at social climbing, poking fun both at the vulgar, pretentious middle-class and the vain, snobbish aristocracy. Capsule Summaries of the Great Books of the Western World
Progressive rock has always been an easy target for the music critics ready to pour scorn on it for being boring, pompous and pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
However, the term baroque was also used by those that vilipended the film, as synonymous of extravagant, pretentious or pompous, thus perpetuating the ambiguous nature of the term.
At the time, we had a very pretentious bar called simply The State Bar, complete with the original filming model of the blimp from Blade Runner over the bar and a collection of 20something SMU brats already so far gone in cocaine addiction that their noses looked like Michael Jackson's. Bad humor (Jack Bog's Blog)
Pretentious enough to use the word ergo when he’s making a threat. The Ark
In her other blog, The Merry Scribbler, PrairieMary has some good things to say about the "architectonics" of writing-- and it is NOT pretentious. Writing-- the Continuing Series
I then paid her the most extravagant compliments; her senseless chatting I described as unrestraint tempered by finesse, her pretentious exaggerations as a natural desire to please; was it her fault that she was poor? The Confession of a Child of the Century — Complete
His lyrics are always childlike and unpretentious, evoking ridiculous pictures and colourful characters.
It is highly serious, extremely ambitious, densely written and rather pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
It's dominated by a late-twenties crowd who can be posy and pretentious since you need money and connections most nights to get through the door.
And another new dimension is the satirical treatment of pretentious luvviedom. Times, Sunday Times
A speedy way to look pretentious is to affect learning that is recognisably bogus. Times, Sunday Times
The style is simple and unpretentious. Times, Sunday Times
The idiocy, and it is perennial, is to look at polls three or six or nine months out and make these pretentious and portentous conclusions before any human being has voted.
It is written so clearly, so directly, so unpretentiously, with candour and endearing tenderness. Family Legacies « Tales from the Reading Room
The river was near at hand, still wearing its Parisian aspect, filled with chains, bathing establishments, great barges, and multitudes of little, skiffs, with a layer of coaldust on their pretentious, freshly-painted names, tied to the pier and rocking to the slightest motion of the water. The French Immortals Series — Complete
Meanwhile, the famous rooftop deck, with its awe-inspiring view of the Basilica dome and Loring Park, remains about living the good life, unpretentiously.
The terms pnictogen and chalcogen are dear to my heart, yet they are just pretentious ways of saying nitrogen family and oxygen family. Annoying and pretentious terms.
The food on our most recent visit was what we've come to expect - hot, unpretentious and well-made if a bit slapdash, as befits a café.
Much like the atmosphere at Caf Poca Cosa, the conversation was intimate, colorful and unpretentious.
His response was full of pretentious nonsense.
I find some overseas prescriptions sound, some obvious, and some overambitious and pretentious.
This movie, on the other hand, looks like it's going to be either a new horror classic that shapes the genre, or one of the most pretentiously awful films of all time.
They want unpretentious, but without being jeans and a sweatshirt. Times, Sunday Times
Those who met the woman, who will one day be Queen of Sweden, were very impressed by her kind manner, unpretentious way and elegant dress.
There is a lot of pretentiousness and snobbery associated with literature.
Or is this pretentious nonsense? Times, Sunday Times
Enough of this pseudo-intellectual posturing, these pretentious literary musings!
If it looks or sounds pretentious, then that is what it will be accused of.
There are no pretentious disquisitions on the supposed post-modernist significance of trashy TV game shows.
Their songs sound a tad pretentious and arty now, but you can't go wrong with the music and energy.
When you consider he works in an industry known for its excess of pretentious luvvies and supercilious fashion junkies, his down-to-earth nature is surprising.
This unpretentious poetess does not go about lecturing or delivering sermons in high places.
They see it as rather pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
this author writes pretentiously
And yet he wasn't the slightest bit pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
The class isn't cheffy, fussy or pretentious, yet it still stretches you. Times, Sunday Times
They see it as rather pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
Carly Fiorina, he was approvingly described as "unpretentious" -- a button-down manager who prized efficiency over flair. mark hurd, mark hurd wife, mark hurd resigns, hpq, hp, hp ceo WN.com - Business News
This riddle of a restaurant is shamelessly unpretentious, and if you've never noticed its inconspicuous façade, you are forgiven.
Betty was afraid the arch's columns might look too formal in her casual and unpretentious garden, but she is happy with the effect.
The convivial, unpretentious atmosphere and the often interesting art and photography exhibitions are highlights too.
Granted, the "36 arguments" construct is used as a structural element, incorporated literally in the form of a series of propositions and their refutations as the novel's concluding section and metaphorically by providing the novel's chapter titles, but otherwise this novel presents few surprises either formally or thematically, proceeding as a garden-variety academic satire complete with bursting egos, pretentious-sounding projects, and fierce political in-fighting. The New Equivocation
Still, he's entirely unpretentious about his labor of love.
For most of the time a small, unpretentious car such as this is handier than a bigger, flashier one. Times, Sunday Times
There are very nice clusters of unpretentious hotels there.
They invite questions but also somehow avoid pretentiousness, obscurantism or any form of exclusivity.
The book is unpretentious; it can present names without dropping them, and the tone is contagiously warm.
It's loved by a small band of pretentious types who dress in black.
Being pretentiously condescending to people doesn't make you suddenly right. Super Obamario Wins The Nobel Peace Prize! » E-Mail
The honours system is flashy, pretentious, and kitsch. Times, Sunday Times
The pretentious editrix kept asking him to point out why Target was so déclassé and how they were conning the masses, but all he could say was ‘Don't you get it?
You may be wrong, but you won't look pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
I have to admit, I do kind of like the idea of coming up with some insanely pretentious penname for my erotica. Sidelines «
The road is lined by cheap hostels and unpretentious bars that bustle at night, and has been a popular spot for foreign backpackers and budget tourists for many years.
It may seem pretentious, but that's what it is. Times, Sunday Times
There's nothing pretentious or facile about them-there's conviction and true wisdom at their heart, and they're always rooted in particulars.
What on first encounter might seem pretentious turns out to be simple and beautiful. Times, Sunday Times
Giving pretentious or monosyllabic answers results in a very dull piece of TV. The Sun
Either way it all seemed needlessly long-winded and rather pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
Stack's taste and style were admirable yet always unpretentious, with no trace of affectation or competitiveness. Times, Sunday Times
The flourishing foodie scene, based on unpretentious but imaginative home cooking, is another plus. Times, Sunday Times
All this pretentious over-ornamentation is cosmeticism, the powder and paint of the vulgarian striving to conceal by a futile advertisement her lack of refinement. Germany and the Germans From an American Point of View
It's funny and freewheeling and, despite the serious thematic material, it's never pretentious.
I described as unrestraint tempered by finesse, her pretentious exaggerations as a natural desire to please; was it her fault that she was poor? The French Immortals Series — Complete
What makes this class of people snobbish rather than simply pretentious is their tendency to sneer.
So Windu's pretentiously-coloured sabre is finally being put to good use ... Scar Friends Luncheon Circle
To say that the music is overblown and pretentious is rather an understatement.
Smart sketches from a trio with a nice line in mocking the pretentious and self-important. Times, Sunday Times
I would have thought that over the years The New York Times might have become less naive about the arts, but it seems to have become more pretentious and downscale.
Diana presented an image of a casual, unpretentious young mother by taking her sons to McDonalds, something that the Prince of Wales would never, ever do.
From no viewing point does the house look excessive or pretentious'. The Times Literary Supplement
Those who still admire Ezra Pound's pretentious poetry will presumably enjoy listening to him reciting while thumping on a kettledrum.
He spouts a load of pretentious nonsense and people are stupid enough to believe him!
You don't want to be too overambitious and be accused of being pretentious and too artsy.
And whether people came here for comfort, memories or merely to witness what, with remarkable near-timing, proves quietly and unpretentiously to be one of the best line-ups all year, they've long since discovered that they've found it.
He urges anyone who is involved in creative work not to get pretentious and to retain her or his sense of humor, noting that "good design may not have to be funny, but it's hard to imagine something that could be called humorless also being good design. Embracing the Art of Hacking
Unintentionally, Anne's step showed her to be a wise and unpretentious woman, whose only aspirations for her children were that that they live happy and fulfilled lives.
His manner is both warm and friendly, with not a hint of the pretentiousness of some of his better known colleagues.
What critic, or prince, could resist something so impressive and so pretentious?
The atmosphere is buzzy and unpretentious, and the waiters charming. Times, Sunday Times
But Stacey, whom everyone describes as unpretentious, refused to drive her new Mercedes, instead sticking with an old forest-green Chrysler minivan. Dr. Nicholas and Mr. Hyde
The young couple had studied together, they were academically brilliant, but socially shy, reserved, unpretentious.
The hypocrisy, double-speak and pretentiousness among the so-called illuminati is astounding. Center for American Progress Action Fund
His paintings typically have an unpretentious, seemingly artless air, redolent of provincial life, which is at variance with the trend towards metropolitan sophistication characteristic of much British painting in the period.
Most reviewers, like you, are pretentious know-it-alls who won't betray any weakness.
The Tides Inn is both comfortable and unpretentious.
Of course, since my essay writing style is just as pretentious as it was throughout school and university, it wasn't too bad to cut it down a bit, I just had to dumb my work down a little!
Shadow : You just stole my words. Those people are so pretentious.
A discussion about the merits of Bob Dylan's new memoir, for instance, quickly degenerated into a patchouli-scented haze of dewy-eyed 1960s nostalgia and hippie-dippy pretentiousness.
Sorry if that all sounds a bit pretentious and improbable. Times, Sunday Times
This unpretentious place is already very popular, so book ahead. Times, Sunday Times
Progressive rock has always been an easy target for the music critics ready to pour scorn on it for being boring, pompous and pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
Perhaps just a little bit pretentious - but a lot of fun. Times, Sunday Times
When someone says they're seeking avant-garde people, does that just mean that they're looking for pretentious people, or is this nomenclature something I don't quite entirely understand?
A self-imposed career hiatus has kept this eloquent, loquacious and unpretentious street-style guy from touring around these parts since the late '90s.
Contemporary dance is constantly called upon to protest its relevance against accusations of complacency and pretentiousness.
The unadulterated tripe about food, the rise of the celebrity chef, cooking and all the pretentious cant that goes with it, is beyond me.
What should have been a useful and informed discourse ends up as a parade of pretentious inutility.
Mercifully, the official exhibition was not gerrymandered into national sections or pretentiously titled thematic subdivisions.
It was just an ordinary house-nothing pretentious.
It was a pretentious little speech that mingled insight and complete fabrication, but I had their attention. ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?: A Life Through the Movies
The foam is a bit pretentious and the spice a little too subtle but the risotto is a buttery pleasure and the cucumber wonderfully refreshing. Times, Sunday Times
It was also a colossal failure, shunned by audiences and blasted by critics as ‘pretentious.’
Bunker is chic and arty without being too pretentious, and its friendly, laid-back vibe is infectious.
You didn't find it a little pretentious? Times, Sunday Times
If you are truly a gentleman, you do not need to be pretentious. Dr T.P.Chia
Still, many Panelists who accepted the usage also remarked that it was pretentious or pompous.
This staging was once admired for its unpretentious pictorialism. Times, Sunday Times
It is certainly his style, his style is completely unpretentious.
The movie is a turgid, pretentious piece of work that may have played well on the page, but is too heavy and slow-moving to work on the big screen.
Hanging game can't be that important or restaurants wouldn't be full of pretentious prats eating grouse on the 12th of August, the only day when you can guarantee the birds can't have been hung.
Audiard has done a masterful job of creating a brash, nervy film that is poignant without ever being pretentious.
Either way it all seemed needlessly long-winded and rather pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
There was a group that modeled themselves on Wittgenstein, which I thought was quite phony and pretentious.
It might also turn educational policy toward explorations and displays of cultural diversity that are less politically pretentious. Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism
“Oh, really?” said the administrator pretentiously. Carolina Grüber: II
The novel deals with grand themes, but is never heavy or pretentious.
When they look at academic discourse they see only persiflage: fancy words, convoluted syntax, and the pretentious invocation of authority.
The Hotel is a very pleasant, friendly, but unpretentious hotel situated in Hammersmith.
And yet he wasn't the slightest bit pretentious. Times, Sunday Times
But a less pretentious structure is the future. Times, Sunday Times
Whether you view this as profound, pretentious, or just plain potty, the results have always drawn a crowd.
I came to Milwaukee because I wished to live deliberately, to confront only what was essential in life away from the pretentiousness of the east coast and the frenzy of the west.
Now I really like poncey, pretentious bars but this place is a step too far.
Light Up the Sky (1948), a rackety farce that Hart pretentiously described as "Shavian," is occasionally revived, but chiefly before the undemanding audiences for dinner theater and summer stock. Moss Hart Stars in Act Two: A Charmed and Troubled Life
If that sounds overelaborate, whimsical and a touch pretentious, well in places it was. Times, Sunday Times
I know it might seem a bit pretentious, a bit arty, but to me they are Nordic gods.
It couldn't happen to a nicer and less pretentious place. Times, Sunday Times

How To Use Pretentious In A Sentence

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