pretension

“Art film” is a bit of a dirty term, frequently offered with a sneer when discussing a work so dripping with pretension that even an Airblade wouldn’t be of any help.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026

Any pretension exhibited was earned with the grace of a batted eyelash and a knowing smirk.

From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2025

There was a baby-knit culotte and matching polo with Gucci stripe detailing, worn without pretension.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 22, 2023

But embedded in such restrictions one may infer either a resistance to having his work pushed to the fringes, or a pretension in contextualizing it as a mainstream experience.

From New York Times ● Aug. 7, 2023

No one tried harder than Satie to puncture the pretension of Bayreuth, even if his rejection of the Wagner legacy may have been at times rather puerile.

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

In Britain, the “angry young men” movement led by John Osborne in the theater was underway, and the social pretensions and expertly crafted witticisms of Coward’s comedies had fallen out of fashion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026

Edmund is said to be brilliant but we mostly get evidence of his pretensions and “annoying air of lazy authority.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026

Kenyon’s dig at “uproarious pedantry” nods to James’s intellectual pretensions, which some courtiers derided—even though a learned monarch seems preferable to an ignorant one.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025

Reflecting on the press, he later noted, "The press has pretensions of being a crusader but is more often a preserver of the status quo."

From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2025

Ned had last seen the king nine years before during Balon Greyjoy's rebel-lion, when the stag and the direwolf had joined to end the pretensions of the self-proclaimed King of the Iron Is-lands.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin