different between pretentious vs mammoth

English

Alternative forms

• prætentious (rare, pedantic or (esp. self-referentially) humorous)

Etymology

From French prétentieux, from prétention, from Latin praet?nsus (“false or hypocritical profession”), past participle of praetend?.

Note that pretentious is spelled with a ‘t’, unlike related pretense, pretension. This is due to the French spelling: *-sious does not occur as an English suffix, though -sion and -tion both do.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /p???t?n??s/

Adjective

pretentious (comparative more pretentious, superlative most pretentious)

1. Intended to impress others; ostentatious.

   Her dress was obviously more pretentious than comfortable.

2. Marked by an unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.

   Their song titles are pretentious in the context of their basic lyrics.

Synonyms

• poseur
• See also Thesaurus:arrogant

Antonyms

• unpretentious

Derived terms

• pretentiously
• pretentiousness

Related terms

• pretend
• pretender
• pretense
• pretension

Translations

References

• pretentious in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pretentious in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• pretentious at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• postuterine

English

Etymology

From obsolete Russian ??????? (mámant), modern ??????? (mámont), probably from a Uralic language, such as Proto-Mansi *m???-o?t (“earth-horn”). Compare Northern Mansi ??? (m?, “earth”), ????? (?n?t, “horn”). Adjectival use was popularized in the early 1800s by references to the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese presented to American paleontologist and president Thomas Jefferson.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?mæm??/

Noun

mammoth (plural mammoths)

1. Any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus, of large, usually hairy, elephant-like mammals with long curved tusks and an inclined back, which became extinct with the last retreat of ice age glaciers during the late Pleistocene period, and are known from fossils, frozen carcasses, and Paleolithic cave paintings found in North America and Eurasia.
2. (obsolete) A mastodon.
3. (figuratively) Something very large of its kind.
   • 1973, Jeffrey Potter, Disaster by Oil (page 46)

     That is a lot of ship, about the the size of big tankers before they grew so rapidly to become supers, mammoths and oilbergs.

Translations

Descendants

• ? Arabic: ???????? (m?m??)
• ? Hebrew: ????????? (mamúta)
• ? Hindi: ???? (maimath)
• ? Japanese: ???? (manmosu)
• ? Khmer: ???????? (maammout)
• ? Korean: ??? (maemeodeu)
• ? Thai: ?????? (m?m-m???t)

Adjective

mammoth (comparative more mammoth, superlative most mammoth)

1. Comparable to a mammoth in its size; very large, huge, gigantic.
   • 1898, Guy Wetmore Carryl, The Arrogant Frog and the Superior Bull, in Fables for the Frivolous (With Apologies to La Fontaine),

     “Ha! ha!” he proudly cried, “a fig / For this, your mammoth torso! / Just watch me while I grow as big / As you—or even more so!”

   • 1999, Albert Isaac Slomovitz, The Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains and American History, New York University Press, page 103.

Synonyms

• (very large): colossal, enormous, gigantic, huge, titanic
• See also Thesaurus:gigantic

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• mammoth on Wikipedia.Wikipedia