Grandiose

//ɡɹæn.diˈəʊs// adj

adj ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Large and impressive, in size, scope or extent.

    "Independence does not need to be a grandiose process of disconnection and severing ties."

  2. 2
    Pompous or pretentious.

    "There is a station here, of course, opened as Didcot in June 1844 and renamed as the more grandiose-sounding Didcot Parkway in July 1985."

  3. 3
    Magnificent or spectacular.
Adjective
  1. 1
    impressive because of unnecessary largeness or grandeur; used to show disapproval wordnet
  2. 2
    affectedly genteel; to carry an air of affected importance; to be snobbish and haughty wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
impressivemagnificentwonderfulaffectedambitiousarrogant

Example

More examples

"It's fine to make grandiose plans, but I'd like you to start with what you have on your plate."

Etymology

From French grandiose, from Italian grandioso, from Latin grandis (“great, grand”) (English grand). Possibly from grand + -ose, though to be debated. Doublet of grandioso.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.