pseudointellectual
Americannoun
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a person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.
-
a person who pretends an interest in intellectual matters for reasons of status.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- pseudointellectually adverb
Etymology
Origin of pseudointellectual
First recorded in 1935–40; pseudo- + intellectual
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.
She was explaining to Gyllenhaal how she based a character in her latest film, “Don’t Worry Darling,” on Jordan Peterson, a professor turned proselytizer whom Wilde described as “this pseudointellectual hero to the incel community.”
From Washington Post
Roth, I’m guessing, would have recoiled at all this pseudointellectual militancy.
From Washington Post
He even worked up an entirely different approach to the character, giving him a backstory in Paris as a pretentious pseudointellectual.
From Washington Post
All I cared about was Pacey Witter and Joey Potter growing old together and adopting me as their fast-talking, pseudointellectual daughter, Amanda Witter-Potter.
From Salon
But how much more urgently truthful is this than the standard artist’s statement, which overflows with regurgitated cliches and pretentious, pseudointellectual guff?
From Washington Post
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
