Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Terse and energetic in expression; pithy.
  • adjective Full of or given to using aphorisms, especially in a pompously moralizing manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Abounding with sentences, axioms, and maxims; full of meaning; terse and energetic in expression; pithy.
  • adjective obsolete Comprising or representing sentences; sentential.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Full of meaning.
  • adjective Using as few words as possible; pithy and concise.
  • adjective Tending to use aphorisms or maxims, especially given to trite moralizing.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective abounding in or given to pompous or aphoristic moralizing
  • adjective concise and full of meaning

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French sententieux, from Latin sententiōsus, full of meaning, from sententia, opinion; see sentence.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sententiōsus, from sententia ("opinion, purpose").

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Examples

Comments

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  • 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

    January 8, 2007

  • Not to be confused with tendentious.

    March 21, 2009

  • "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

    March 16, 2013