affectation

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The Hepburn surname was an affectation of her father’s, which she later adopted.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 8, 2026

It plays out like a drunken freestyling session in your coolest friend’s apartment — with lines like “you are not that bitch” delivered with a heavily-accented affectation that feels seductive, but more importantly, unbothered.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025

While Ross’ style undeniably calls attention to itself, the director is prescient enough to know that some will see his untraditional mode as a mere affectation.

From Salon • Dec. 13, 2024

With no affectation whatsoever, and a voice directly wired to her emotions, she makes Lucille our way into a story we might rather turn away from.

From New York Times • Mar. 16, 2023

In Love’s Labour’s Lost, Shakespeare has Berowne complain, “Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise, / Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, / Figures pedantical; these summer flies / Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.”

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith