(disapproving) trying to appear important, intelligent, etc. in order to impress other people; trying to be sth that you are not, in order to impress:
That's a pretentious name for a dog! * It was just an ordinary house-nothing pretentious. * He's so pretentious!
compareUNPRETENTIOUS
pretentiously adverb
pretentiousness noun [U]:
There was no hint of pretentiousness in her manner.
