Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The act of condescending or an instance of it.
- n. Patronizingly superior behavior or attitude.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The act of condescending; the act of voluntarily stooping or inclining to an equality with an inferior; a waiving of claims due to one's rank or position; affability on the part of a superior; complaisance.
Wiktionary
- n. The act of condescending; voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in intercourse with an inferior; courtesy toward inferiors. syn.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of condescending; voluntary descent from one's rank or dignity in intercourse with an inferior; courtesy toward inferiors.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a communication that indicates lack of respect by patronizing the recipient
- n. affability to your inferiors and temporary disregard for differences of position or rank
- n. the trait of displaying arrogance by patronizing those considered inferior
Etymologies
- Late Latin condēscēnsiō, condēscēnsiōn-, from condēscēnsus, past participle of condēscendere, to condescend; see condescend. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“You may have noticed that elite condescension is one thing lots of folks dislike about the left!”
The Huffington Post: David Roberts: Introducing 'Climate Hawks'
“And, really, your condescension is making you look ignorant.”
Think Progress » Bayh Claims ‘There’s A Fighting Chance’ Obama Will Call For A Spending Freeze
“Your condescension is outweighed by your stupidity.”
“Some of the older white Cubans retained racist feelings that were conveyed to us with a certain condescension and stiffness.”
Alice Walker: On Finding Your Bliss Interview by Evelyn C. White
“I realize that he could very well be elected in November, but his constant whining and air of condescension is convincing me more and more that I would find it very trying to listen to him for the rest of the campaign, never mind four years.”
McCain, Obama Trade Barbs Across the Seas - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
“Rather, Air America's broadcasts seem merely to reinforce a certain condescension — hampering rather than helping a Democratic Party desperate to expand its appeal in red states.”
“A response consisting of mere condescension is what I call behaving like an ass.”
Developers Planning 14-Neighborhood Complex at cvillenews.com
“Do you know the meaning of the word condescension?”
“With all this, Berendt has fashioned a Baedeker to Savannah that, while it flirts with condescension, is always contagiously affectionate.”
“As a Basque, Juan was as much a foreigner among these Spaniards as Col-n himself, so that he got condescension from the Italian, contempt from the Spanish royal officers, and mockery from the Spanish sailors.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘condescension’.
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Naresh_Special
portent, organically, malicious, sham, olfactory, vertebrates, protuberance, sensilla, flagitious, pleonastic, exiguous, wayward and 102 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
trope, wellerism, antimetabole, syncope, open-list, accismus, abating, abbaser, abecedarian, abcisio, ablatio, abominatio and 425 more...
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Interesting words
ineffable, effable, immutable, amorphous, parochial, salient, ascertain, circumspect, congenial, coeval, aversion, edification and 117 more...
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GRE
acrimony, verisimilitude, tenebrious, tenebrous, dishabille, unfettered, deplorable, woebegone, credulity, naïveté, mitigate, meliorate and 475 more...
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School Words
hagiography, antediluvian, rakish, impeccable, hackneyed, irascible, nascent, teetotaller, suffragette, amiable, expiate, turbulent and 110 more...
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cat 2012
mala fide, trafficking, impoverished, atrocity, divulge, personify, audacity, resurrect, dubious, bloated, sovereign, rein and 123 more...
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To Learn & Use
extrapolate, Abderian, obstreperous, iconoclasm, tapsalteerie, agelast, ignimbrite, Abecedarian, Abligurition, Accubation, Aeolist, agerasia and 123 more...
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fountainhead
perversion, reproachful, mitigate, proletariat, cadaverous, gallantry, jauntily, malevolent, eludicate, sonorous, solicitude, dubious and 97 more...
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working list
overkill, premonition, discombobulation, golliwogs, guerilla, paraphernalia, banter, gambit, atonement, leeway, ingenuity, haberdashery and 164 more...
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January
shard, famine, lure, gentry, connive, conspicuous, stroller, dashboard, trichinosis, sash window, condescension, sophomore and 53 more...
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intentional malapropisms
is there a name for these ... ?
devil's avocado, cast nasturtiums, cast asparagus, spaniard in the w..., murky bucket, none of your beeswax, i resemble that r..., prime-ministerial, tictac, my sediments enti..., privet, hey bisto and 15 more...
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Words
fickle, redeem, disclosure, fortnight, depict, convey, scribe, affluent, commuter, defection, churn, vouch and 77 more...
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New York Times
All the words I don't know in New York Times Sunday Newspaper
inexorable, discerning, revere, warp, garner, backlash, ample, cachet, nonagenarian, plaintive, inaugural, shrine and 58 more...
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Personally Unpronounceable
thus, tentatively, bagel, clinton, farcical, gerund, franchised, condescension, entendre, posthumously, swatch, swathe and 10 more...
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Favorite actions . . .
quash, ravaging, leering, spelunk, fuck, gorge, behead, dismember, mingle, trespass, revenge, baffle and 35 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for condescension.

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