What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Pompous vs Impertinent - What's the difference?

pompous | impertinent |

As adjectives the difference between pompous and impertinent

is that pompous is affectedly grand, solemn or self-important while impertinent is insolent, ill-mannered.

As a noun impertinent is

an impertinent individual.

pompous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Affectedly grand, solemn or self-important.
  • * 1848, , Bantam Classics (1997), 16:
    • "Not that the parting speech caused Amelia to philosophise, or that it armed her in any way with a calmness, the result of argument; but it was intolerably dull, pompous , and tedious; and having the fear of her schoolmistress greatly before her eyes, Miss Sedley did not venture, in her presence, to give way to any ebullitions of private grief."

    Synonyms

    * conceited * smug * See also

    Antonyms

    * humble * modest * self-effacing

    Related terms

    * pomp * pomposity * pompously

    External links

    * * *

    impertinent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • insolent, ill-mannered
  • * Tillotson
    • things that are impertinent to us
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • How impertinent that grief was which served no end!
  • irrelevant (opposite of pertinent)

    • Usage notes

    Although, historically, definition 2 was the original (derived from the French below) usage; meaning gradually changed to definition 1. More recently general usage has come to, once again, incorporate definition 2. As many older speakers will consider definition 2 incorrect, avoiding the word altogether may be advisable. The construction "not pertinent" is one possible alternative.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An impertinent individual.
  • * (Maria Edgeworth)
    • comfortably recessed from curious impertinents
    ----