as in pretentious
Related Words
Relevance
Dissimilar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of fancy-pants
Partridge was dressed in classic English fancy-pants style, while Rodrigo embraced the vintage preppiness inherent to gingham.
—
Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 2 July 2025
The surprise of Clover Hill is not that this sort of food is on offer in an outer borough—with its concentration of zillion-dollar brownstones and fancy-pants residents, Brooklyn Heights isn’t exactly salt of the earth.
—Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 21 July 2024
But no—not good enough for these fancy-pants mathematicians who need their own set of characters just to feel special.
—Eli Burnstein, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2023
With crust that's beautifully singed and wondrously puffed, the not-so-basic numbers are polished with fancy-pants ingredients—from Calabrian chile, fennel and sausage to a cacio e pepe riff made with velvety cream sauce, formaggi al pepe and pecorino.
—Brooke Viggiano, Chron, 12 Mar. 2023
Kathleen Walsh, Glamour, 2 July 2025
The surprise of Clover Hill is not that this sort of food is on offer in an outer borough—with its concentration of zillion-dollar brownstones and fancy-pants residents, Brooklyn Heights isn’t exactly salt of the earth.
—Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, 21 July 2024
But no—not good enough for these fancy-pants mathematicians who need their own set of characters just to feel special.
—Eli Burnstein, The New Yorker, 3 Aug. 2023
With crust that's beautifully singed and wondrously puffed, the not-so-basic numbers are polished with fancy-pants ingredients—from Calabrian chile, fennel and sausage to a cacio e pepe riff made with velvety cream sauce, formaggi al pepe and pecorino.
—Brooke Viggiano, Chron, 12 Mar. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fancy-pants
Adjective
-
Sitting in a room full of pretentious ex-friends and mentally eviscerating them all is a universal human experience.—
Literary Hub
July 1,
Literary Hub,
1 July 2025
-
And a slightly surreal, fantastical closing scene is puzzling and pretentious rather than provocative.—
Stephen Farber,
HollywoodReporter,
16 June 2025
Adjective
-
While the grandiose gestures may seem romantic and well-intentioned, love bombing is almost always followed by devaluation and criticism.—
Amaris Encinas,
USA Today,
10 July 2025
-
In Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, collective or cooperative land reforms—less grandiose and more grassroots than the Soviet or Chinese variants—brought substantive and lasting social change.—
Michael Albertus,
Foreign Affairs,
24 June 2025
Adjective
-
And more than any other animal, cats represented to her its moral antithesis: lazy, pompous, interested only in themselves.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
6 June 2025
-
At 11:30, as the simultaneously pompous and obsequious gate agent announces the passengers above gold status, the bit, already tilting toward insanity, leaves any attempt to portray a real airport behind and dives fully into Alice in Wonderland–level surrealism.—
John Roy,
Vulture,
8 May 2025
Adjective
-
Some of the federal government’s messaging in recent months regarding falling egg prices appear at odds with its statements about inflated egg prices in the lawsuit.—
Esther Sun,
Mercury News,
10 July 2025
-
While venture capital markets can support inflated valuations in the short term, companies ultimately need to deliver returns that justify these investments.—
Josipa Majic Predin,
Forbes.com,
8 July 2025
Adjective
-
Rachel Brosnahan opted for a sparkly purple Ralph Lauren gown at the Superman premiere in L.A.—
Catherine Santino,
People.com,
9 July 2025
-
Look for bronze or dark spots on the foliage or prominent purple veins.—
Kim Toscano,
Southern Living,
9 July 2025
Adjective
-
Torry’s candidly dumpy, dingy, dated, wood panel lined courtroom allowed for the placement of contemporary art and the banging of nails into walls which would have been forbidden in one of the ornate ground floor courtrooms.—
Chadd Scott,
Forbes.com,
8 July 2025
-
This restored 1600s-era piano nobile apartment in Venice’s Cannaregio district is a stunner with its Terrazzo floors and ornate plasterwork.—
Nicole Kliest,
Vogue,
8 July 2025
Adjective
-
Never Enough never feels bloated or overly ambitious; in this fable, Icarus flies away.—
Allaire Nuss,
EW.com,
13 July 2025
-
While Federal assistance was always intended to supplement state actions, not replace those actions, FEMA's outsized role created a bloated bureaucracy that disincentivized state investment in their own resilience.—
Peter Aitken,
MSNBC Newsweek,
13 July 2025
Adjective
-
She’s stilted and awkward and doesn’t really banter.—
Jason P. Frank,
Vulture,
19 July 2024
-
The stilted writing and direction, sadly, leave a lot to be desired: Emotions are under-explored and the humor misfires, with a perfectly capable cast asked to deliver some truly clunky lines.—
Tomris Laffly,
Variety,
9 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fancy-pants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fancy-pants. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share