Pretentious vs Tawdry - What's the difference?
pretentious | tawdry |
Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.
Ostentatious; intended to impress others.
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Cheap and gaudy; showy.
* 1823 , , Quentin Durward , ch. 33:
* 1917 , , Calvary Alley , ch. 20:
Unseemly, base, shameful.
* 1918 , , The Forty-Niners , ch. 1:
* 1920 , , The Great Impersonation , ch. 16:
* 2008 August 9, Clemente Lisi, "
As adjectives the difference between pretentious and tawdry
is that pretentious is marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction while tawdry is cheap and gaudy; showy.pretentious
English
Alternative forms
*Adjective
(en adjective)- Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics.
- Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.
Synonyms
* poseur * See alsoAntonyms
* unpretentiousDerived terms
* pretentiously * pretentiousnessReferences
tawdry
English
Adjective
(er)- The rest of his dress—a dress always sufficiently tawdry —was overcharged with lace, embroidery, and ornament of every kind, and the plume of feathers which he wore was so high, as if intended to sweep the roof of the hall.
- It was all cheap and incredibly tawdry , from the festoons of paper roses on the walls to the flash of paste jewels in make-believe crowns.
- [T]he "greaser" was a dirty, idle, shiftless, treacherous, tawdry vagabond, dwelling in a disgracefully primitive house, and backward in every aspect of civilization.
- The woman's passion by his side seemed suddenly tawdry and unreal, the seeking of her lips for his something horrible.
Lusty Lies of Don Juan John," New York Post (retrieved 16 Dec 2013):
- After months of flat-out lying to the public, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards finally copped to having a sleazy extramarital fling. . . . The tawdry affair has dogged Edwards over the past few months.
