Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Terse and energetic in expression; pithy.
- adj. Abounding in aphorisms.
- adj. Given to aphoristic utterances.
- adj. Abounding in pompous moralizing.
- adj. Given to pompous moralizing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Full of pithy sentences or sayings; pithy; terse: as, a sententious style or discourse; sententious truth.
- Given to the use of pithy or axiomatic sayings or sentences.
- Same as sentential, 2.
- Synonyms Laconic, pointed, compact.
Wiktionary
- adj. obsolete Full of meaning.
- adj. Using as few words as possible; pithy and concise.
- adj. Tending to use aphorisms or maxims, especially given to trite moralizing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Abounding with sentences, axioms, and maxims; full of meaning; terse and energetic in expression; pithy.
- adj. obsolete Comprising or representing sentences; sentential.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. abounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing
- adj. concise and full of meaning
Etymologies
- From Latin sententiōsus, from sententia ("opinion, purpose"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old French sententieux, from Latin sententiōsus, full of meaning, from sententia, opinion; see sentence. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Although Buddy did not know the word "sententious," the people he described were the embodiment of it -- licensed bores, as all aborigines seemed to be (so he implied), who had a proverb or a biblical passage for every reversal in life.”
“But wherever in his Gospel S. Mark is doing the same thing, he is observed to adopt the style and manner which Dr. Davidson is pleased to call "sententious" and "abrupt.”
“[253] And yet, if it were ever so "sententious," ever so "abrupt;" and if his "brief notices" were ever so "loosely linked together;" -- these, according to Dr. Davidson, would only be indications that S. Mark actually was their Author.”
“Chandak, a 13-year-old seventh grader at Seneca Falls Middle School, spelled "sententious",”
“I hate it when Tom Colicchio gets sententious, as he did facing the losing four contestants on last night's third episode of Top Chef D.C..”
“As i n a 2005 London production, he plays Robert, a sententious veteran trouper doing a season of rep with John (T.R. Knight), a promising young colleague.”
“Especially with Thoreau, snippets can feel sententious or bossy or crabby, and the Journal isn't.”
“Reuters publishes the solemn press release in all its sententious glory here.”
“The episodes range from the sententious (Simon Schama) to the plain and informative (Samuel Adamson's version of an Englishman's recollections).”
The Guardian: Decade; The Tempest; The Kitchen; Parade – review
“The phrase "inspired by a true story" affixes itself to novels like a warning label: Beware sententious moralizing.”
The Wall Street Journal: Cheeshahteaumauk, Class of '65 (1665)
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sententious’.
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 269 more...
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Familiar
Just a list of words
fulminate, unctuous, malediction, lumpenproletariat, descry, surfeit, sententious, supernumerary, unabashed, picayune, obliterate, decry and 112 more...
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My first list
exposition, anecdote, perspicacious, polemic, imbroglio, irascible, vicissitude, venality, payola, amatory, caliginous, avuncular and 5 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
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501
Classic
abhor, mirth, obtuse, iota, vex, irk, teem, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane and 401 more...
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Not 250 Spelling Words Again
Yet more spelling words for intermediate to advanced spellers.
kyoodle, heimin, feis, menarche, cordwainer, gherao, zythum, accidie, anastomosis, boustrophedon, oleum, penicillin and 238 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 160 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 503 more...
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Poetic
the blue hour, dinner-pail, long-drawn, pettifog, spoonmeat, crawler, eructate, voiced, medial, tessellated, eyeballs, amphigory and 48 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1894 more...
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magoosh1
aberration, aboveboard, abysmal, ace, affable, aghast, alacrity, ambiguous, ambivalent, ameliorate, amenable, amiable and 222 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for sententious.
ThatsBaloneyMan "Is not this ten times better than to set out dogmatically with a sententious parade of wisdom, and telling the world a story of a roasted horse..." ---Tristram Shandy Mar 16, 2013
milosrdenstvi Not to be confused with tendentious. Mar 21, 2009
brtom But why can’t I be moral?—Let me try—
My heart thus pressing—fixed my face and eye—
With a sententious look, that nothing means,
(Faces are blocks in sentimental scenes)
Goldsmith, She Stoops, Prologue Jan 8, 2007