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
But Corya is no vulgar, narcissistic bully and parvenu.
From Slate • May 21, 2020
Just as the parvenu tries to elevate himself into a higher social realm, the word climber wishes to seem more intelligent than he actually is.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 13, 2017
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
A parvenu of the middle classes, he was brutal in his treatment of the lower orders and a sycophant in his behaviour towards the powerful; prodigiously active, ill-obeyed—as was the custom—but much dreaded.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 7 "Fox, George" to "France" by Various
From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.