parvenu
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.
Chenoweth, who is as gleaming as a holiday ornament on Liberace’s Christmas tree, arrives at a canny balance of quixotic generosity and parvenu carelessness in her portrayal of a woman she refuses to lampoon.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2025
In one scene, Trimalchio, a parvenu who serves dishes like a boiled calf wearing a helmet, decides that a mere party isn’t enough and holds a mock funeral for himself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 30, 2016
As befits such a status-obsessed parvenu, Monsieur Jourdain has arrived in style, ushered along by the energetic director Denis Podalydès, a popular polymath in France who also writes and acts on both screen and stage.
From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2016
In 1925, Gatsby’s pink suit marked him as an attention-seeking parvenu; today, you can buy a $996 replica from Brooks Brothers’ new “Gatsby Collection.”
From Slate ● May 22, 2013
He had none of the snobbishness of an impoverished parvenu, who is ashamed of being obliged suddenly to retrench, and hides his economies as a crime.
From 'Gloria Victis!' A Romance by Ossip Schubin
Vocabulary lists containing parvenu
English Words Derived from French, List 7
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The Count of Monte Cristo
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
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