ostentation

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: os=ten=ta=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

ostentation, n. [L. ostentatio: cf. F. ostentation.].

•  The act of ostentating or of making an ambitious display; unnecessary show; pretentious parade; -- usually in a detractive sense.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

  "He knew that good and bountiful minds were sometimes inclined to ostentation."  [1913 Webster]
•  A show or spectacle.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Parade; pageantry; show; pomp; pompousness; vaunting; boasting. See Parade.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

ostentation, n.
1 a pretentious and vulgar display esp. of wealth and luxury.
2 the attempt or intention to attract notice; showing off.

Derivative

ostentatious adj. ostentatiously adv.

Etymology

ME f. OF f. L ostentatio -onis f. ostentare frequent. of ostendere: see OSTENSIBLE

THESAURUS

ostentation

Barnumism, acting, affectation, appearance, arabesque, arrantness, attitudinizing, baroque, baroqueness, bedizenment, big talk, blatancy, bluff, bluffing, boldness, cheating, chinoiserie, color, coloring, conspicuousness, convolution, deception, delusion, demonstration, disguise, display, dissemblance, dissembling, dissimulation, elaborateness, elegance, enactment, exhibit, exhibition, exhibitionism, exposition, exposure, facade, face, fakery, faking, false air, false front, false show, falsity, fanciness, feigning, feint, fineness, flagrance, flagrancy, flamboyance, flashiness, flatulence, flatulency, flaunting, floridity, floridness, flourish, floweriness, four-flushing, fraud, front, fulsomeness, garishness, gaudiness, gilt, gloss, grandiloquence, grandioseness, grandiosity, high relief, high-flown diction, humbug, humbuggery, imposture, inflatedness, inflation, lexiphanicism, loftiness, luridness, luxuriance, luxuriousness, magniloquence, masquerade, mere rhetoric, meretriciousness, moresque, noticeability, notoriety, notoriousness, obtrusiveness, opening, orotundity, ostentatious complexity, outstandingness, outward show, overelaborateness, overelegance, overornamentation, parade, performance, platitudinous ponderosity, playacting, polysyllabic profundity, pomposity, pompous prolixity, pompousness, pontification, pose, posing, posture, presentation, presentment, pretense, pretension, pretentiousness, pretext, production, projection, prominence, pronouncedness, prose run mad, representation, retrospective, rhetoric, rhetoricalness, richness, rococo, salience, saliency, seeming, semblance, sensationalism, sententiousness, sham, show, showiness, showing, simulacrum, simulation, speciousness, stiltedness, strikingness, strong relief, swelling utterance, swollen phrase, swollenness, tall talk, tortuosity, tortuousness, tumidity, tumidness, turgescence, turgidity, unfolding, unfoldment, unveiling, varnish, varnishing day, vernissage, window dressing

ROGET THESAURUS

ostentation

Vanity

N vanity, conceit, conceitedness, self-conceit, self- complacency, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-esteem, self-love, self-approbation, self-praise, self-glorification, self-laudation, self-gratulation, self-applause, self-admiration, amour propre, selfishness, airs, affected manner, pretensions, mannerism, egotism, priggism, priggishness, coxcombry, gaudery, vainglory, elation, pride, ostentation, assurance, vox et praeterea nihil, cheval de bataille, coxcomb, Sir Oracle, vain, vain as a peacock, proud as a peacock, conceited, overweening, pert, forward, vainglorious, high-flown, ostentatious, puffed up, inflated, flushed, self-satisfied, self-confident, self-sufficient, self-flattering, self-admiring, self-applauding, self-glorious, self-opinionated, entente, wise in one's own conceit, pragmatical, overwise, pretentious, priggish, egotistic, egotistical, soi-disant, arrogant, unabashed, unblushing, unconstrained, unceremonious, free and easy, vainly, how we apples swim!, prouder than rustling in unpaid-for silk.

Ostentation

N ostentation, display, show, flourish, parade, etalage, pomp, array, state, solemnity, dash, splash, splurge, glitter, strut, pomposity, pretense, pretensions, showing off, fuss, magnificence, splendor, coup d'oeil, grand doings, coup de theatre, stage effect, stage trick, claptrap, mise en scene, tour de force, chic, demonstration, flying colors, tomfoolery, flourish of trumpets, pageant, pageantry, spectacle, exhibition, exposition, procession, turn out, set out, grand function, f=ete, gala, field day, review, march past, promenade, insubstantial pageant, dress, court dress, full dress, evening dress, ball dress, fancy dress, tailoring, millinery, man millinery, frippery, foppery, equipage, ceremony, ceremonial, ritual, form, formality, etiquette, puncto, punctilio, punctiliousness, starched stateliness, stateliness, mummery, solemn mockery, mouth honor, attitudinarian, fop, ostentatious, showy, dashing, pretentious, janty, jaunty, grand, pompous, palatial, high-sounding, turgid gairish, garish, gaudy, gaudy as a peacock, gaudy as a butterfly, gaudy as a tulip, flaunting, flashing, flaming, glittering, gay, splendid, magnificent, sumptuous, theatrical, dramatic, spectacular, ceremonial, ritual, solemn, stately, majestic, formal, stiff, ceremonious, punctilious, starched, dressed to kill, dressed to the nines, decjed out, all decked out, en granite tenue, in best bib and tucker, in Sunday best, endimanch_e, chic, with flourish of trumpet, with beat of drum, with flying colors, ad captandum vulgus, honores mutant mores.