1. attempting to impress others by acting more important, knowledgeable, or cultured than one actually is

Examples

• The restaurant’s pretentious menu used fancy French names for simple dishes.
• His pretentious way of speaking made him sound condescending to his coworkers.
• She found the art gallery’s pretentious atmosphere intimidating.
• The movie was criticized for being pretentious and overly complicated.
• He dropped pretentious references to obscure philosophers in casual conversation.
• The pretentious wine critic used unnecessarily complex vocabulary to describe a basic vintage.